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Toward the end of 2024, Atlanta gained a new group of African diplomats, adding three new countries to Georgia’s consular corps and bringing the number of nations with representation in the state to 73.
Honorary consuls from Botswana, Ghana and Zambia helped offset the loss of accreditation of Liberia and Mali, two African nations that previously had longstanding honorary consuls in Atlanta.
Many top diplomats assigned to the Southeast U.S. and based in Atlanta also saw their tenures end, resulting in transitions for some countries enjoying significant trade and investment relationships with the region.
“The Consular Corps plays a vital role in strengthening Georgia’s global connectivity and facilitating international partnerships,” says Nico Wijnberg, chief of protocol and director of international relations at the Georgia Department of Economic Development. “Their presence in our state is integral to attracting investment, promoting trade and positioning Georgia as a leader on the global stage.”
Ireland’s new consul general, Frank Groome, took up his post in August around the time a delegation from Georgia was in Ireland for the Georgia Tech football game. Caoimhe Ni Chonchuir, his predecessor, cheered the Yellow Jackets to victory in what amounted to her last act as consul general before returning to Ireland to become deputy political director focused on Northern Ireland at the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Sports were also key to the early tenure of new Argentine Consul General Alana Lomonaco Busto, who started Jan. 1, 2024. One of her first activities was hosting a sports tech delegation in Atlanta to see Argentina square off against Canada in the Copa America kickoff soccer match at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Since then, Ms. Lomonaco has worked with her husband and deputy consul, Sebastian D’Alessio, to welcome multiple software firms from Argentina prospecting for business in Atlanta, a growing tech hub. The diplomatic couple in December also hosted a first-of-its-kind event at the consulate in Dunwoody to outline opportunities under a new investment regime promulgated by reform-minded President Javier Milei.
Belgian Consul General Katherine Raeymaekers arrived in August, just in time to present her 2025 objectives during a Belgian King’s Day reception at Bold Monk Brewing in November.
On her agenda, in addition to fostering further investment and trade connections? Showcasing influential Belgian individuals and companies across the Southeast U.S.
Ms. Raeymaekers replaced Michel Gerebtzoff, who presided over the pivotal economic mission led to Georgia by Princess Astrid in 2023. That trip, billed by some as the largest delegation the city has hosted since the Olympics, reinforced Georgia as a top destination in the U.S. for Belgian manufacturers and creatives. Mr. Gerebtzoff left Atlanta to become Belgium’s ambassador to Moscow.
Other new consuls landed here in 2024 without much fanfare: Brazil’s Pompeu Andreucci Neto in October quietly replaced as consul general Luís Cláudio Villafañe Gomes Santos, who was named the new head of the Brazil Commercial Office in Taipei, Taiwan.
Theodoros Dimopoulos of Greece closed out his term presiding over the repatriation of antiquities from this region back to Greece.
The Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University government turned over the first wave of three works last January, after evidence was presented that they had been looted or illicitly excavated at some point before arriving in the museum’s collection. Another three (article in Greek) artifacts in an individual’s collection were returned in September on Mr. Dimopoulos’ watch, just before his departure. Konstantino Adamopoulos, the new consul, took up the post in Mr. Dimopoulos’s stead in September.
Marie Orlyne Colas Rene in July became the new head of the Consulate General of Haiti in Atlanta, which remains operational despite the turbulence the Caribbean country has seen due to gang violence and governance in the last two years.
In 2023, the first in many years that Global Atlanta failed to publish a Diplomatic Digest update, Atlanta saw new consuls general appointed to six existing missions: Canada, Guatemala, India, Korea and Peru.
Throughout 2024, Mexican Consul General Javier Diaz de Leon continued to serve as dean, the longest-serving member of the corps, and 2025 will mark his ninth year in Atlanta.
In addition to running the activities of her consulate, Israeli Consul General Anat Sultan-Dadon continues to crisscross the Southeast U.S. to advocate for the Israeli war effort in Gaza, nearly six years after her arrival in more peaceful times.
Diplomatic terms in the Southeast U.S. generally last three to four years.
The three new African honorary consuls included:
- Naana Frimpong, Honorary Consul of Botswana
- Yvonne Horsley McCowin, Honorary Consul of Ghana
- Anna Ndashe Katema Banda, Honorary Consul of Zambia
Ambassador Auwalu Jega Namadina, consul general of Nigeria in Atlanta, also took up his post in 2024.
Global Atlanta continued its ongoing engagement with the consular corps, attending the Georgia Council of International Visitors’ International Consular Ball, posting to our calendar Diplomatic Dialogues hosted by the Atlanta Council for International Relations, and by creating our own opporunities for readers to network and engage.
Global Atlanta events with diplomats included our annual child protection luncheon with members of the consulates’ internal teams, a reception welcoming five African diplomats to our offices, and our Consular Conversations, a series of monthly luncheon interviews with diplomats hosted at Miller & Martin’s law offices in Midtown, and, now, also outside-the-perimeter at the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce.
See our slate of upcoming Consular Conversations, including a Jan. 29 event with German Consul General Melanie Moltmann, below:
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The Dean Rusk International Law Center at the University of Georgia is the presenting sponsor of Global Atlanta's Diplomacy Channel. Subscribe here for monthly Diplomacy newsletters.