b. New Westminster, B.C. (BA Hon. [Political Science], U of Toronto, 1981; MA [Political Science], Columbia U, 1982; BCL, LLB [Common/Civil Law], McGill U, 1986) was called to the British Columbia Bar in 1986, and practiced law at Campney & Murphy before joining the federal government in 1989 as acting manager of lands for the British Columbia regions of the Department of Indian and Northern Afffairs. In 1990, he joined External Affairs, serving in Ottawa as an  officer in the legal, Europe, and policy planning division, director general for executive management and assignments, and director general for the amalgamation of the Canadian International Development Agency with Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. In the Privy Council Office, he worked as a policy advisor in the Inter-Governmental Affairs Bureau. In the 1990s, he served abroad as political officer at Canada's mission in Kenya (1991-1994) and India (1997-2000), and as chargé d'affaires in Cambodia (1998), and, later as deputy permanent representative to NATO (2006-2010), high commissioner to Nigeria and permanent observer to ECOWAS (2010-2013), ambassador to Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan (2016-2019), chargé d'affaires at Canada's mission to the European Union (2019-2020), and high commissioner to South Africa, Mauritius, Namibia and Lesotho and ambassador to Madagascar (2020-present).