Biographical notes

Sylvain Fabi (BBA, Bishop’s University, 1988) joined the Trade Commissioner Service of External Affairs and International Trade Canada in 1992. At Headquarters, he worked as desk officer for Scandinavia and then Russia in the Europe Branch (1992 to 1995); as trade policy officer in the Market Access Division (1998 to 1999); as deputy director, Overseas Operations Division (1999 to 2001); as senior departmental adviser to the minister of international trade (2009 to 2010); and as director for bilateral relations with South America and the Caribbean (2010 to 2013). From 2013 until 2015, he was executive director of the North America Policy and Relations Division. Mr. Fabi’s assignments abroad include trade commissioner at the embassy in Moscow (1995 to 1998), commercial counsellor at the embassy in Havana (2001 to 2005) and commercial counsellor at the embassy in Santiago (2005 to 2009). Mr. Fabi served as high commissioner in Jamaica and the Bahamas (2013 to 2017). He became executive director, U.S. Transboundary Affairs Division, in 2017.

André François Giroux (LLB [Civil Law], University of Montréal, 1992; LLM [International Business Law], McGill University, 1994; LLM [European Community Law], College of Europe, 1995; MBA, University of Montréal, 2001) joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 1995. He served abroad at the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York (1996 to 1999), in part during Canada’s term on the Security Council, and as counsellor at the embassy to France (2004 to 2008). In Canada, he has had assignments in the International Trade Law Bureau, in the International Economic Relations and Summits Division and in the Office of Protocol. From 2008 to 2010, he was director of the Non-Proliferation, Disarmament and Space Division, and from 2010 to 2012, director of the Office of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Most recently, Mr. Giroux was the NAFTA secretary and director of the Trade Agreements Secretariat, after having served as ambassador to Denmark from 2012 to 2016.