Professional Affiliation

Senior Special Advisor, U.S. and International Affairs, Business Council of Canada

Expert Bio

Former Ambassador Louise Blais was Canada’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York from 2017-2021.  During this time since, she also served as Vice President on UNICEF’s Executive Board. She is now Associate at the Pendleton Group and Special Senior Advisor, International Affairs, to the Business Council of Canada and the QG100 in Quebec.

 

Louise Blais began her professional career as an Art Theft Analyst at Interpol. She then managed the Development Program at the National Archives of Canada before joining the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 1996. As a senior diplomat, she served abroad in Washington and Tokyo and as Minister-Counsellor for Political Affairs at the Embassy in Paris helping coordinate Canada’s participation in the 2011 G8 in Deauville and the G20 in Cannes. During this period, she was also the Director of the Canadian Cultural Centre.

In Ottawa, at Global Affairs Canada, she held the positions of Director of the Public Diplomacy Division and Executive Director of the Rotational Staff Division. She was Consul General of Canada in Atlanta, covering North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Before being named Ambassador to the UN.

She has served on numerous philanthropic boards including the Helen Hayes Awards, the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington, the Tokyo International Film Festival, and the Board of Advisors of the Atlanta Ballet. She is an alum of the BMW Foundation’s Trans-Atlantic and World Young Leaders Forum and a member of their Global Responsible Leaders Network. She currently sits on the Arts & Artists International Board, the Advisory Boards of the Canadian Forum for Impact Investment and ADC Technologies and she is a Distinguished John Robson Lecturer at Emory University and Diplomat-in-Residence at Laval University. She is the recipient of many honors including a Distinguished Leadership Award from the Business Council of Alabama. And a media commentator on foreign affairs and economic development.