Appointed by President Macky Sall on July 12, 2023, His Excellency Gorgui Ciss represents the Republic of Senegal as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Canada. With a distinguished diplomatic career, he has served as Senior Foreign Affairs Advisor and was Senegal's Ambassador to Japan, with accreditation to Australia and New Zealand.

H.E. Ciss also served as Ambassador, Deputy Permanent Representative of Senegal to the United Nations from 2015 to 2018, playing a key role during Senegal's non-permanent term on the UN Security Council in 2016-2017.

In his current role, he is accredited to the Right Honourable Mary Jeannie May Simon, Governor General of Canada, and resides in Ottawa. His Excellency Ciss continues to strengthen ties between Senegal and Canada, fostering cultural, economic, and political exchanges between the two nations.

His Excellency Bafétigué Ouattara is a seasoned diplomat and expert in disarmament, international security, and international organizations (UN, AU, ECOWAS). He played a key role within the Ivorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, particularly on issues of arms control, counterterrorism, and governance. His diplomatic career began in 2004, and he successively held the positions of Research Officer, Deputy Director of International Security Affairs, and then Advisor at the Permanent Mission of Côte d'Ivoire to the UN in New York. From 2013 to 2015, as Deputy Permanent Representative, he was involved in managing the Ivorian crisis at the UN Security Council, contributing to the crisis resolution process and the lifting of international sanctions against his country.

After eight years at the UN, he returned to Côte d'Ivoire where he successively headed the departments of African International Organizations and of the Americas and Caribbean between 2016 and 2021. In January 2021, he was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire to Canada and presented his credentials in September of the same year to the Governor General of Canada, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary J. Simon.

Sabine Soumare is the Executive Director of the Diversity Institute’s (DI) Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (WEIH). In this role, she collaborates with ten WEIH regional centres and over 250 partners to build partnerships and share knowledge and best practices that strengthen the women’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. Sabine is a bilingual communications professional with seven years of experience in diversity and inclusion, including active engagement with Francophone communities across Canada. With over 15 years of experience in communications, marketing, and public affairs, she also runs a consulting firm that provides strategic advice to institutions and non-profit organizations that support women, newcomers, and racialized communities. From 2015 to 2018, she served as Senior Communications and Stakeholder Relations Advisor to the Attorney General of Ontario and the Minister of Francophone Affairs.