New Arrivals
Natasha Smith
High Commissioner for Australia
High Commissioner Smith is a senior career diplomat with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and was most recently first assistant secretary in the multilateral development and finance division. She’s served overseas as first secretary in Indonesia and counsellor at the Australian mission to the UN in New York.
Smith’s career in the foreign ministry, and previously the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), spans 25 years and has included a broad range of policy, program and corporate roles in Australia and overseas. For example, she led the Afghanistan and Pakistan workforce strategy and security and humanitarian response branches. She was also a member of the task force charged with overseeing the move to integrate AusAID and DFAT into a single department.
She was also one of DFAT’s inaugural Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) Champions. She holds a bachelor of economics from James Cook University.
Alvin A. Smith
High Commissioner for the Bahamas
In 1992, when he retired from a 24-year career in education, High Commissioner Smith decided to pursue a political career.
The same year, he was appointed to the Bahamas’ Senate and became the upper chamber’s vice-president. Three years later, he was promoted to parliamentary secretary at the ministry of education and in 1997, he was elected to the House of Assembly — Parliament’s lower house, at which time he became executive chairman of Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation for four years. In 2002, he was re-elected and appointed leader of the official opposition. After another re-election in 2007, he became speaker of the House of Assembly.
In 2014, he became a real estate agent and later obtained a licence to sell life insurance. He joined his country’s foreign ministry in October of this year.
Srdjan Lalic
Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Ambassador Lalic is an engineer of organizational sciences by training and completed a PhD in the subject in 2016.
He began his career, however, before completing his master’s and PhD, as head of marketing for Demax Company in 2006. He later moved to Serbia’s department for European integration and international co-operation and later headed the unit. In 2011, he became secretary for a negotiating chapter within the same organization and was active in Serbia’s efforts toward European integration. In addition, he worked as a bilateral co-operation co-ordinator for statistics with Sweden and France and also co-ordinated international projects related to statistics.
Over his career, the ambassador has received several certificates of achievement and has published numerous scientific papers.
Aster Mamo Ana
Ambassador of Ethiopia
Ambassador Mamo began her career in education, but spent much of her time in leadership. In 2002, she became Speaker of the Council of the State of Oromia, and she was appointed federal minister of youth and sports in 2006.
In 2011, she became the government’s chief whip in Ethiopia’s House of Peoples Representatives. After serving three years in that position, she was named deputy prime minister for the governance and reform cluster and minister of public service and human development, positions she held until 2016.
Prior to coming to Canada, she served as a vice-president at Meles Zenawi Leadership Academy. She has a master’s degree in organizational leadership from Azusa Pacific University in California. She is married to Merga Feyissa and has six children.
Fadi Ziadeh
Ambassador of Lebanon
Ambassador Ziadeh is not new to Canada. Prior to this posting, he served as Lebanon’s consul-general in Montreal.
He joined the foreign ministry in 1999 as an attaché and one year later, he was posted to the UAE as deputy head of mission until 2005 when he was posted to Moscow in the same role, this time with the title of first secretary.
Between 2008 and 2009, he worked in the political section at headquarters in Beirut, after which he was posted, for four months, as chargé d’affaires at the embassy in Prague. Between 2009 and 2012, he was a counsellor at the Lebanese mission to the United Nations in New York, after which he became consul-general in Montreal.
The ambassador speaks French, English and Arabic and, while posted to Montreal, completed a master’s in business administration. He is married to Tanya Bou Jaoudeh and has two daughters.
Fahad Saeed Al Raqbani
Ambassador of United Arab Emirates
Ambassador Al Raqbani comes to diplomacy from the world of business. Prior to his appointment, he spent a year as a senior adviser at Mubadala Investment Company and before that, eight years working at the Abu Dhabi Council for Economic Development, with six years as director general.
Between 2004 and 2008, he worked for Mubadala Development Company in project finance and project management. He also worked as a project associate at UAE Offset Group.
He has served on the boards of several corporations as well as some non-profits and charities. He has a master’s degree in finance and risk management from Lille Graduate School of Management in France and a bachelor’s degree in international economics from American University in Paris. He is married and speaks Arabic, English and French.
Non-heads of mission
Australia
Steve Zoumberis
Second secretary and consul
Kurt Brown
Defence adviser
Bangladesh
Farhana Ahmed Chowdhury
Counsellor
Chile
Jorge Andrés Castillo Fuentes
Defence attaché
China
Yanzhuo Xu
Second secretary
Chenbo Jiang
First secretary
Lihua Hu
Counsellor
Jiwen Sun
Minister-counsellor
Croatia
Jelena Peric
Counsellor
Dominican Republic
Iris Joseline Pujol Rodriguez
Counsellor
El Salvador
Enriqueta Claramunt De Rodriguez
Counsellor
Ethiopia
Merga Feyissa Tufa
Minister
Georgia
Zezva Liparteliani
Defence attaché
Hungary
Zsuzsanna Nagy
Attaché
India
Sunil Kumar Sharma
Second secretary
Indonesia
Aurora Dwita Pangestu
Third secretary
Iraq
Samer Tareq Naser Al-Saedi
Attaché
Japan
Yukako Ochi
First secretary
Korea, Republic
Hwasue Sung
First secretary
Mali
Fatoumata Sylla Maiga
Second counsellor
New Zealand
Vanessa Jane Berry
Counsellor
Peru
Ivan Eduardo Manchego Cuayla
Attaché
Philippines
Noel Sancon
Attaché
Saudi Arabia
Abdulrahman Abdulaziz A. Alsulaiman
Attaché
Saad Muaibed S. Alharbi
Attaché
Senegal
Ndeye Coumba Ndiaye
First secretary
South Africa
Ntokozo Siyabonga P. Ndlela
First secretary
Turkey
Erdal Demirci
Attaché
Deniz Irgul
Attaché
Levent Gurcan
First Secretary
Hasan Kocasoy
Counsellor
Ilker Tokay
Counsellor
United Arab Emirates
Essa Rashid Obaid R. Al-Ali
Defence, military, naval and air attaché
United Kingdom
James Nicholas Niven Orr
Defence adviser
Venezuela
Luis Augusto Acuna Cedeno
Minister-counsellor and chargé d’affaires
Vietnam
Hoang Yen Vu
Counsellor
Zimbabwe
Herbert Garikai Nyathi
Counsellor
