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For the first time in more than two years, Canada has named a permanent consul general in Atlanta who will take up a regular three-year cycle starting this fall.
Rosaline Kwan is a trade specialist with a history of working with multilateral bodies in Asia who comes to the Atlanta role from a position as director of operation for the Foreign and Defence Policy Secretariat in the Privy Council Office of Global Affairs Canada.
She will replace James Hill, who has served as interim consul general for just over a year and recently presided over Canada Day celebrations marking the consulate’s 50th anniversary in Atlanta.
Mr. Hill came to the post after Louise Blais, consul general from 2014-17, returned to spend six months filling her former position in 2021. The regular cycle was derailed during the pandemic, as Nadia Theodore left the consul general post to join the private sector before a successor had been tapped. (An expert trade negotiator in her own right, Ms. Theodore has since returned to government service as the country’s ambassador to the World Trade Organization in Geneva.)
Ms. Kwan, the consul general designee, has served in overseas postings in Beijing, Taipei and New Delhi; Atlanta will be her first assignment leading a mission in the United States.
Global Affairs Canada, which handles the country’s trade and diplomatic relations, has tended to appoint to Atlanta diplomats that have a solid grounding in economic issues, reflecting the importance of the trade component of the bilateral relationship in this dynamic region of the U.S.
At headquarters in Ottawa, Ms. Kwan served as director general of the Trade Sectors Bureau and led divisions focused on Canada’s economic and trade ties with key bodies including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, of which Canada is a member. Before joining the foreign service, she held position at Statistics Canada and Revenue Canada.
She earned an undergraduate degree in mathematics and computer science at Montreal’s McGill University before getting an international MBA at the University of Ottawa.
See a bio sketch from Global Affairs Canada here or below:
Rosaline Kwan (BSc [Mathematics and Computer Science], McGill University, 1989; MBA [International], University of Ottawa, 1994) joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 1997. During her time at Headquarters, she held the positions of director general, Trade Sectors Bureau; executive director, Southeast Asia, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and Association of Southeast Asian Nations Division; executive director, Commercial-Economic, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Oceania and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Division; director, Multi-industry Sectors and Virtual Practices Division; and deputy director, Korea and Oceania Division. Overseas, she served in Beijing, Taipei and New Delhi. Prior to joining the Canadian foreign service, she held various positions at Statistics Canada and Revenue Canada. Most recently, she held the position of director of operations, Foreign and Defence Policy Secretariat, Privy Council Office.
Learn more about the Consulate General of Canada in Atlanta here.
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