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"The Canada-North Carolina Economic Partnership During a Trump Presidency" Featuring Louise Blais, Consul General of Canada--Southwest        

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 from 1992-1996 before joining the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 1996.  As a senior diplomat, she has served abroad as Counsellor at the Embassy in Washington and Tokyo and as Minister-Counsellor for Political Affairs at the Embassy in Paris during the President Sarkozy’s Presidency, 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 the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, she has held the positions of Director of the Public Diplomacy Division where she oversaw Canada’s International outreach and Executive Director of the Rotational Staff Division.   Ms. Blais and her team was responsible for the deployment of over 2000 employees world-wide.
 
In August 2014, the Minister of Foreign Affairs appointed her Consul General of Canada in Atlanta, covering states with an aggregate bilateral trade of over $50 Billion: North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.
 
Louise Blais has served on numerous boards including the Helen Hayes Awards in Washington DC, the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington and the Tokyo International Film Festival. She is also an alum of the Herbert Quandt Foundation’s Trans-Atlantic and World Young Leaders Forum (2001, 2002, and 2005).
 
Louise Blais holds a B.A. from McGill University.  She is married to Peter Falkner and has two sons.