Pedro Fernando Bretas Bastos
Ambassador of Brazil
Mr. Brêtas completed a law and social sciences degree at the Federal University of Brazil and practised law, working for Exxon Mobil Corporation and COSIGUA, before going into diplomacy.
After completing his diplomatic studies, he became a desk officer for Canada, something that perhaps foreshadowed his current appointment. He was posted to Washington as second secretary (1981-84); Lisbon as second and then first secretary (1984-87); Lagos as counsellor (1987-1990); Lisbon again, this time as counsellor (1992-96); Asunción as counsellor (1996-1999); and Dublin as ambassador (2008-2013).
While in Brazilia, he was an executive co-ordinator at the office of the minister of external relations and later, head of the South America division. He also served as a special adviser to the transport minister and, later, as director of the secretariat for international relations within the Presidency of the Brazilian Federal Senate.
Virgilio Alcántara
Ambassador of Dominican Republic
Mr. Alcántara joined the foreign service after beginning his career in the world of communication. He studied communications at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, and, for 18 years, was editor of two national newspapers (1970-1988). He joined the foreign service in 1988, as consul general in New York City. He has been permanent representative to the UN twice (1990-1993; 2011-2013), and once to the Organization of America States (2008-2011). He was press secretary and official spokesperson to the president (1996-1998). He was also ambassador to Japan and Korea, and consul general in New Orleans, Tokyo and Seoul. At headquarters, he worked as senior adviser to the minister (2005-2008). In 1993, while serving as representative to the UN, he was appointed concurrent ambassador to Canada.
Birtukan Ayano Dadi
Ambassador of Ethiopia
Ms Dadi has a law degree from the Ethiopian Civil Service University and has several other course certificates including one on female leadership and decision-making, one on justice and another on principle-based leadership.
She began her career as an elementary and junior high school teacher before working as a high-court judge at the Oromia Regional High Court. Her first diplomatic appointment, by coincidence, was to Canada, as a counsellor at the Ethiopian general consulate in Toronto between 2006 and 2011. She then spent two years as senior counsellor at the ministry of foreign affairs, in the international treaties and legal affairs division. Her next appointment was as ambassador-designate to Canada.
Ms Dadi speaks Afan Oromo, Amharic and English. She is married.
Rafael “Rafi” Barak
Ambassador of Israel
Born in Uruguay, Mr. Barak immigrated to Israel at 18, completed his military service and earned a bachelor’s degree in history and political science at Tel Aviv University. Ten years later, he completed a master’s in political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
He began his diplomatic career in 1979 when he was posted to Peru. He returned to headquarters before a six-year term in Brussels, first as counsellor to the EU and then as deputy chief of mission to Belgium and Luxembourg.
From 1993 to 1996, he worked on the Oslo Peace Process as chief co-ordinator for negotiations. At headquarters, after postings to Washington as deputy chief of mission and to Paris as chargé d’affaires, he served as assistant deputy minister and acting deputy minister [of foreign affairs]. In May 2011, he became deputy minister.
He is married to Miriam Barak; they have three children.
Ala Beleavschi
Ambassador of Moldova
Mrs. Beleavschi is the first resident ambassador of Moldova to Canada. Prior to coming to Canada to establish the embassy, she was director-general of the bilateral co-operation department at the foreign ministry.
Mrs. Beleavschi joined the foreign service in 1993. Since then, she has served abroad in the U.S., Italy and twice in Britain (as political counsellor and chargé d’affaires). Her first mission to London was to open the Moldovan embassy. At the foreign ministry, she served as director for the Americas division (2005-07).
She specialized in international relations and diplomacy at the University of Leeds (UK) and later at The Netherlands Institute of International Relations “Clingendael.” She also completed a degree in English philology and literature at the State University of Moldova.
She was born in Telenesti, Moldova. She is married and has one daughter.
John Chrysostom Alintuma Nsambu
High Commissioner for Uganda
Mr. Nsambu studied at the United States International University in San Diego and at the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany. He has a bachelor’s of international relations and a master’s of political science.
From 1996 to 2000, Mr. Nsambu worked as the co-ordinator and officer-in-charge of the Exchange Students’ Program of the European Union at the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany. In 2006, he became a Member of Parliament for Uganda. Over the next five years, he served as minister of state for Information Communications and Technology and was a member of the presidential and foreign affairs committee of Parliament. In 2012, he was appointed ambassador to Eritrea, but he ended up not going. Instead, he came to Canada.
He speaks Luganda, English, German, Italian and Spanish.
Fahad bin Mohamed Y. Kafoud
Ambassador of Qatar
Mr. Kafoud finished his bachelor’s degree in accounting and economics in 1993, the same year he began his career at the ministry of foreign affairs.
From 1993 until 2002, he worked at the administrative and finance directorate at the foreign ministry.
In 2008, he worked at the embassy of Qatar in Washington, D.C., and one year later, he returned to headquarters in Doha to work in the office of the prime minister.
In 2009, he was appointed the general co-ordinator in the office of the minister of foreign affairs, where he spent the following four years, before being sent to Canada.
Mr. Kafoud is married and has two sons and two daughters.
Naif Bin Bandir Alsudairy
Ambassador of Saudi Arabia
Mr. Alsudairy has a master’s degree in political science. He began his career in the public service in 1990, but decided to become a diplomat and joined the ministry of foreign affairs in 1996. Just one year later, he was sent to the United Nations in New York as a member of Saudi Arabia’s permanent mission there. In 1999, while still in New York, he became a member of the third committee of the Asian Group on Human Rights.
In 2010, he was director-general of the department of specialized organizations at the foreign ministry and two years later, was elected leader of the first working group on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.
He speaks Arabic and English and is married with three sons and one daughter.
Non-heads of mission
Argentina
Sebastian David Molteni
Counsellor
Australia
Adrian Hugh Morrison
Deputy High Commissioner
David John Sharpe
Minister-Counsellor
Belgium
Johan Maria J. Andries
Defence Attaché
Bolivia
Stael Angelica Rodriguez Romero
First Secretary
Burundi
Emmanuel Niyonzima,
Second Counsellor
Chile
Jorge Balaresque
Defence Attaché
China
Hui Huang
Attaché
Nan Li
Attaché
Zhongying Mao
Counsellor
Zhisong Yin
Second Secretary
Haitao Zhu,
Military, naval and air attaché
Colombia
Juan Carlos Rojas Arango
First secretary
Costa Rica
Jorge Eduardo Umana Vargas
Counsellor and consul
Côte d’Ivoire
Aminata Kone
First secretary
Cuba
Carlos Frank Marin Maning
Attaché
Ethiopia
Michael Tobias Babisso
Minister-counsellor
Bogale Kussia Bodda
Second counsellor
Estifanos Tesfay Hailu
Minister-counsellor
Almaw Atnafu Muluneh
Second counsellor
Genet Amare Tefera
Second secretary
Ghana
Norman Johnson
First secretary
Haiti
Ann-Kathryne Lassegue
Minister-counsellor
Libya
Abdalla .S.A. Bgar
Counsellor
Khaled M.O. Elbasir
Attaché
Abdolfattah .A.M. Elbishty
Attaché
Macedonia
Jovica Palashevski
Minister-counsellor
Mexico
Rolando Paniagua Taboada
First secretary
Mongolia
Ulziibayar Gonchig
Counsellor
Myanmar
Thwin Maung Maung
Attaché
Khine Nyein Su
Second secretary
New Zealand
Micaela Buckley
Counsellor
Russia
Konstantin Pilipchuk
Second secretary
Saudi Arabia
Abdullah Alahmari
Attaché
Amal Abdulrahman S. Alamoudi
Attaché
Khalid Abdullah E. Alaqil,
Attaché
Hussein Alhomaid
Attaché
Ali Saleh Ali Alkaladi
Attaché
Bassam Alkhrashi
Attaché
Ibrahim Almogbel
Attaché
Yousef Alyousef
Attaché
Senegal
Zaccaria Coulibaly
Minister-counsellor
South Africa
Floyd Thamela Jele
First secretary
Nonceba Carol Mogwera
Counsellor
Sri Lanka
Aratchige Kalansuriya
Minister
Dilan Perera
Attaché
Tunisia
Mohamed Nejib Djelassi
Military attaché
Ukraine
Zoriana Stsiban
Second secretary
United States of America
Raymond Thomas Goergen
Assistant attaché
Margaret Kathryn Ting
Minister-counsellor
Zambia
Chrispin Nchimunya Chibawe
First secretary
Henry Chisanga Shaddie Mukuka
Defence attaché