Louise Blais

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

Speaker

Former Ambassador Louise Blais was Canada’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York from 2017-2021. During this time, she had responsibility for the UN Sustainable Development Goals and also served as Vice President on UNICEF’s Management Board.

She is now Associate at the Atlanta-based Pendleton Group and Senior Advisor to the Business Council of Canada. She is the author of numerous commissioned reports and articles, a public speaker and frequent media commentator on international affairs and economic development.

Having begun her career at Interpol, Louise Blais joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1996. As a senior diplomat, she served abroad in Washington, Tokyo and as Minister-Counsellor for Political Affairs at the Embassy in Paris. She was Consul General in Atlanta, representing Canada in six U.S. states, before being named Ambassador to the UN in 2017.

In 2023, she was appointed by the Minister of International Trade to the Board of Invest in Canada. She is on the Advisory Boards of ADC Technologies and Canadian American Business Council. She is Strategic Advisor to the QG100, a network of top Quebec companies with international operations.

She regularly leads or participates in business delegations to international meetings, such as the Trilateral Free Trade Commission (Canada, USA and Mexico), the Canada-Mexico High Level Economic Dialogue.

Among her many philanthropic affiliations, she has served on the Helen Hayes Awards, Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington, the Tokyo International Film Festival and the Board of Advisors of the Atlanta Ballet. She currently sits on the the Arts & Artists International Board and the International Advisory Board of McGill University’s Global Health Program.

She is a Distinguished John Robson Lecturer at Emory University and Diplomat-in-Residence at Laval University in Quebec City and The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. She has been a member of the BMW Foundation’s Global Responsible Leaders Network since 2001. And was a Fellow at the North Capital Forum in Mexico City.

She is the recipient of many honours including a Distinguished Leadership Award from the Business Council of Alabama.

Louise Blais holds a B.A. from McGill University.