New arrivals
Marica Matkovi´c
Ambassador of Croatia
Ambassador Matkovic is a lawyer by training and began her career as a legal adviser in Zagreb in 1978, after which she worked in the same role for a housing association. She then became a counsellor at the ministry of health and then the foreign ministry’s international law department.
By 1996, she was head of the department for consular affairs at the foreign ministry and thaen became minister-counsellor in the Czech Republic. In 2001, she was head of the northern and western Europe division, after which she was named deputy head of mission at the embassy in Serbia in 2002.
In 2003, she returned to headquarters as head of the consular affairs department, then was appointed consul-general to Chicago. From 2008 to 2012, she was ambassador to Israel and from 2012 to 2015, she was secretary general of the Croatian government.
She speaks English, Croatian and Czech.
Abdulhamid A.M.A. Alfailakawi
Ambassador of Kuwait
Ambassador Alfailakawi joined the Kuwaiti foreign ministry in 1982 as a diplomatic attaché. A year later, he was posted to Beijing. In 1988, he returned to headquarters to work on the Asia and Africa desk and later that same year, was posted to the embassy in Washington as second secretary.
In 1994, he was posted to the Kuwaiti embassy in New Delhi as first secretary and in 1998, he transferred to the embassy in Vienna as counsellor. In 2001, he became ambassador to Senegal, with non-residency responsibilities in Cape Verde as well. In 2004, he became ambassador to Malaysia and Brunei and three years later, he was named ambassador to Tunisia.
In 2009, he became ambassador to Hungary and four years later, returned to headquarters as assistant to the minister responsible for Arab World Affairs.
Mr. Alfailakawi is married and has five children.
Dato’ Aminahtun Karim Shaharudin
High Commissioner for Malaysia
High Commissioner Dato’ Aminahtun is a career diplomat with more than 32 years experience. She’s worked at various divisions of the ministry, namely the South-East Asia, Western Europe, Africa and East Asian desks, ASEAN, and consular affairs.
This assignment brings her full circle, as her first foreign posting was to Canada in 1988. She has also served as counsellor at the Malaysian Embassy in Indonesia (1996 to 2001), ambassador to Ukraine (2004 to 2007), and ambassador to Croatia (2007 to 2011). Most recently, she held the position of senior director at the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (IDFR), where she trained young diplomats, local and international. She was also instrumental in planning, co-ordinating and implementing a transformation plan for IDFR.
Dato’ Aminahtun was awarded Croatia’s Order of the Duke Branimir with Ribbon in 2011 and Malaysia’s Kesatria Mangku Negara (KMN) in 2009.
Agustin García-López
Ambassador of Mexico
Ambassador López has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in economics from Columbia University in New York and a French bachelor’s degree in philosophy and literature from Vienna, Austria.
He joined the foreign ministry in 1986 as an economic adviser to the foreign minister and later became an economic and foreign policy officer at the embassy in Britain. He held several director-general positions at the foreign ministry between 1993 and 2000 and then became executive director for Mexico and the Dominican Republic to the Inter-American Development Bank and the Inter-American Investment Corporation from 2000 to 2007. He became permanent representative to the OECD in Paris (2007 to 2013) before becoming ambassador to France (2013-2015.)
He speaks Spanish, English, French and German. He is married to Katya Anaya de la Fuente. They have two children.
Daniel Mellsop
High Commissioner for New Zealand
In addition to his position as New Zealand High Commissioner to Canada, Daniel Mellsop, a career diplomat, will be concurrently accredited to Jamaica.
Mellsop has held numerous positions in the New Zealand public service, covering a wide range of issues, from trade negotiations to counter-terrorism. Prior to being posted to Ottawa, he was a senior policy officer and head of the international branch at the ministry of defence.
For three years beginning in 2005, he was posted to the Netherlands as first secretary and between 2011 and 2012, he was deputy head of mission at the embassy in Korea.
Mellsop has a master’s of management studies in economics from the University of Waikato and speaks English, Russian and Korean. He comes to Ottawa with his partner, Jane Hooker, and two children.
Anne Kari Hansen Ovind
Ambassador of Norway
For the six years prior to this posting, Ambassador Ovind led the high north, polar affairs and resources section at the foreign ministry in Oslo where she helped implement Norway’s Arctic policy.
Prior to this, she was assistant director general for environment and sustainable development and led Norway’s delegation to the UN Commission for Sustainable Development in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
From 1998 to 2002, she worked on NATO affairs, first in Oslo and then for three years at Norway’s delegation to NATO in Brussels.
The ambassador joined the foreign service in 1996, but started at the foreign ministry in 1993 as part of the negotiating team for Norwegian membership in the European Union.
She has a master’s in economics and business, a master’s in arts and a master’s of science. She is married to Tom Oscar Ovind. They have two sons.
R. C. Wu
Representative, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office
Representative Wu’s posting is new, and yet familiar: Prior to being appointed to his position in Ottawa, he was director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Toronto for one year.
Before his posting in Toronto, he was director general of international NGO affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taiwan from 2010 to 2014. He served as representative in St. Kitts and Nevis beginning in 2008 and served as director general of TECO in Atlanta, Georgia, from 2003.
Wu’s other assignments included serving as congressional liaison officer in the foreign ministry and chargé d’affaires at the embassy in Dominica. He began his career in the foreign service by serving in Jordan and Poland.
His first job was as a police chief and he later received his master’s degree from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Andriy Shevchenko
Ambassador of Ukraine
For a man of 39, Ambassador Shevchenko has had a long career in journalism and politics.
He began his career as Kyiv correspondent for Edmonton’s The Ukrainian News. He helped found the Ukrainian 5th Channel, the first 24/7 Ukrainian news channel, and, in 2004, reported on the Orange Revolution.
In 2002, he became chairman of the Kyiv Independent Media Union and received the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Award in 2005.
Shevchenko was then elected to the Ukrainian Parliament three times (2006, 2007 and 2012). Between 2006 and 2012, he served as the youngest Ukrainian committee chairman, heading up the free speech committee. He was a participant in the 2013/14 Euromaidan protests and organized peaceful demonstrations.
Prior to this posting, he served as chief of party of the USAID-financed RADA (Responsible Accountable Democratic Assembly) Program.
Shevchenko is married to TV journalist Hanna Homonai. They have one daughter.
Non-heads of mission
Argentina
Cecilia Ines Silberberg
Second secretary
Franco Agustin Senilliani Melchior
Third secretary
Australia
Ken Smith
First secretary
Bangladesh
Nayem Uddin Ahmed
Counsellor
Brazil
Ramos Araujo, Marcelo
Counsellor
Lincoln, Doralice
Attaché and vice-consul
Cameroon
Michele Marie Madeleine Esso
Second counsellor
Modeste Michel Essono
First secretary
Chile
Fernando Raul Borcoski Pinto
Defence attaché
China
Hongbin Xu
First secretary
Xiang Xia
Minister-counsellor
Yuguang Guo
First secretary
Cuba
Armando Erich Azcuy Perez
Attaché
Ethiopia
Etsegenet Bezabih Yimenu
Counsellor
France
Mathieu Antoine Bernard Schuster
First secretary
Indonesia
Christhophorus Barutu
Attaché
Erry Kananga
Second secretary
Japan
Mikio Katayama
First secretary
Yuki Ochiai
Second secretary
Kenya
Isaiah Kiprotich Koech
First secretary
Korea
Janghoi Kim
Minister-counsellor
Lesotho
Liteboho Kutloano Mahlakeng
Counsellor
Malaysia
Tengku Zahaslan Bin Tuan Hashim
First Secretary
Mohd Nasir Bin Aris
Second secretary
Mali
Cherif Mohamed Kanoute
First counsellor
Mexico
Mae Helen Yvonne Stinson Ortiz
Minister
New Zealand
Neil David Hallett
Counsellor
Norway
Olafr Rosnes
Counsellor
Paraguay
Alberto Esteban Caballero Gennari
Counsellor
Philippines
Glen Richard Martinez
Attaché
Russia
Alexander Veselovskiy
Attaché
Maxim Zuev
Second secretary
Igor Prigaro
First secretary
Saudi Arabia
Lafi Ayed S.Alshammari
Attaché
Abdullah Belal M. Alrubayan
Attaché
Raed Faqihi
Attaché
Thailand
Suktheep Randhawa
First secretary
United States
Robert Bruce Worsham
Army attaché
John Arthur Sgroi
Assistant attaché
Janee Pashan Pierre-Louis
First secretary
Doak Robert Dyer
Attaché
Venezuela
Jissette Carolina Abreu Lopez
Second secretary
Zambia
Evaristo David Kasunga
Deputy head of mission
