Canada appoints first female High Commissioner to Guyana

Canada appoints first female High Commissioner to Guyana

Canada’s new High Commissioner to Guyana Dr. Nicole Giles presented her credentials to President Ramotar on Thursday promising to continue to build the relationship Canada shares with Guyana.

Dr. Giles will also serve as the Representative to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and Ambassador to Suriname (Designate). She is the first female to be appointed as Canada’s High Commissioner to Guyana, Representative to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Ambassador to Suriname.

The new High Commissioner said over the years, Canada and Guyana have shared strong relations with several large Canadian companies investing in Guyana. She said “the presence of Canada’s largest banks in Guyana and over thirty Canadian companies in your extractive sector are to our mutual benefit and speak to our growing commercial relationship.  Of the many priorities that we share, commercial relations have the greatest potential to improve prosperity for Canadians and Guyanese”.

The High Commissioner also stated that Canadian businesses have much to offer as they continue to contribute to job creation and prosperity in Guyana.  She noted that Canada is committed to promoting good Corporate Social Responsibility practices by Canadian companies, and will “continue to take a leadership role in encouraging transparency in the extractive sector by establishing new mandatory reporting standards for our companies”.

Dr. Giles has BA Honours [Political Science and History] from Queen’s University, 1998; MPhil [International Relations], University of Oxford, 2001; DPhil [International Relations], University of Oxford, 2005) and worked as a retained lecturer at the University of Oxford’s Wadham College prior to joining Foreign Affairs Canada in 2005.

She has worked as a program officer and deputy director with the Nuclear and Radiological Security Division and as director of the Global Partnership Program. She has also published on missile defence and nuclear strategy. Most recently, Dr. Giles was director of the Capacity Building Programs Division.

She is married to Brian Giles, and they have one son and one daughter.

Dr. Giles replaces David Devine as High Commissioner.

 

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