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COVID Consular Conversations: Belgium, the Netherlands and Ireland
The coronavirus pandemic has added a new dimension to international competition even as it has underscored global connectivity in a new and challenging way.
Diplomats working around the world to knit together a coordinated response are doing without their customary personal touch and with the added responsibility of shepherding their compatriots through an unprecedented health and economic crisis.
Join Global Atlanta October 8 for the fourth virtual edition of Consular Conversations, our ongoing series of interviews with consuls general working in the Southeast United States, sponsored by Miller & Martin PLLC. This time, we focus on Europe, welcoming two new faces in the consuls general of Ireland and Belgium, as well as the Netherlands, the most recently opened consulate in the city.
Our monthly luncheons may be on indefinite hiatus, but these discussions are as important as ever at a time when cross-border collaboration is at a premium.
For this edition, we’re welcoming as our guests:
- Belgian Consul General Michel Gerebtzoff
- Dutch Consul General Ard van der Vorst
- Irish Consul General Ciara O’Floinn
Registration Details
Registration is limited to the first 100 attendees. Global Atlanta email newsletter subscribers and Consular Conversations annual pass holders will be prioritized.
This event is free, but the $40 Consular Conversations annual pass is available. While we’re unable to meet in person or offer luncheons for the foreseeable pandemic future, we’re providing the following benefits to those who buy/renew the pass through the end of 2020:
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Early notification and priority registration for limited virtual event slots
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Extension of annual pass validity to all in-person luncheons through the end of 2021
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Access to digital recordings of live online events, even without attending
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Access to e-book with Consular Conversations summaries
About our speakers:
Michel Gerebtzoff was born in Geneva on March 3, 1972, into a family with Russian and French roots. He graduated as a Water and Forestry Engineer from the Faculty of Agronomic Sciences in Gembloux, Belgium.
He first started a career in the private sector, as a specialist in geographic databases and earth observation systems.
At the age of 30, he passed the diplomatic competition and joined Foreign Affairs, becoming Embassy Secretary in Geneva (WTO and WIPO, from 2005 to 2008) and then in Beijing (2008-2012). After a year at the Directorate General of European Affairs (trade policy department), he returned to China, to Guangzhou, to head the office for the promotion of exports and investments of the Walloon Region (2013-2016). During that time he was also appointed to the Governing Board of the American International School of Guangzhou.
Upon his return to Brussels, he became an advisor at the Permanent Representation of Belgium to the European Union, in charge of trade, research, and space (2016-2017), after which he became Chief of Staff to the Deputy Permanent Representative of Belgium to the European Union (2017-2019).
In 2019 he joined the cabinet of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Didier Reynders before becoming Deputy Chief of Staff to Minister of Foreign Affairs Philippe Goffin (2019-2020). In that capacity, he sat on one of the main pandemic management bodies.
Michel Gerebtzoff took office as Consul General of Belgium in Atlanta on August 1, 2020. He is married and the father of two daughters.
Ard van der Vorst took up his appointment in Atlanta as Consul General for the Kingdom of the Netherlands in January 2019. Ard is the senior Netherlands government representative in the Southeast United States responsible for relations with the states of Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama. He leads a team, which works to promote NL-US trade and investment, support Dutch nationals, conduct public diplomacy on key issues, and build scientific and research co-operation.
Before taking up his posting in Atlanta, Ard served as Head of the Spokesman Office and Newsroom at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague. He was also Dutch Consul in San Francisco from 2012 to 2015. Throughout both of these postings, Ard’s main focus was on communication, economic, and foreign policy ties between the Netherlands and the US.
Prior to his posting in San Francisco, he was Head of Development Cooperation at the Netherlands Representative Office in Ramallah, Political coordinator on Western Balkan Affairs in The Hague, and working on a range of issues linked to development cooperation, security policy, trade, and European Union. Ard joined the NL’s diplomatic service in 1997. He has also served overseas in Nigeria and Albania.
Ard was born in Breda, the Netherlands. He has a master’s degree in Public Administration at the University of Leiden. His husband, Pieter, accompanies him in Atlanta.
Follow Ard on twitter @NLinAtlanta
Ciara O’Floinn took up duty as Consul General of Ireland in Atlanta, in August 2020. The Consulate General covers the Southeast states of Georgia, Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. A career diplomat, Ciara has a strong background and experience in EU affairs and EU foreign policy, including EU-US relations and security and defense issues.
Originally from Dalkey in Co. Dublin, Ciara was educated at Loreto Abbey Dalkey primary and secondary schools. She graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 2004 with a First Class Honours Degree in European Studies, having spent a year of her degree studying in Strasbourg, France. She holds an M.A. in European Political Studies from the College of Europe’s Natolin campus in Warsaw.
Ciara worked as a political staffer at the European Parliament in Brussels for 2 years before joining the Department of Foreign Affairs in 2007. Her assignments have included a posting to Ireland’s representation to the EU in Brussels, where she worked on Ireland’s EU Presidency in 2013. She has also served in the Department’s Protocol Division and spent a year at the Department of the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) working on EU affairs. From 2014 – 2018 she was seconded as a national expert to the EU Institutions, working at the European External Action Service (EEAS) in Brussels where she served as an advisor to the Deputy Secretary-General for Security and Defence and Crisis Management, covering EU-US and EU-NATO relations.
Her most recent assignment prior to Atlanta was as Deputy Director of the Strategy, Governance and Change Unit in Dublin, working on the implementation of Department-wide thematic strategies and overseeing reviews of the Department’s network of missions abroad.
Ciara is married to Caoimhín Ó Coigligh, also an Irish diplomat. They have two young children, Senan and Éabha.
From her base in Atlanta, Ciara will work alongside the Consulate team to strengthen Ireland’s links with the southeast region, to promote Irish culture, heritage, and interests, and to support Irish citizens in the region.
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