Ben Rowswell, Canadian International Council
Ben Rowswell has been President and Research Director of the Canadian International Council since November 2018. Prior to the CIC, Ben served as Canada's Ambassador to Venezuela from 2014 to 2017. This capped a 25-year career as a professional diplomat including assignments in Canada's embassies to Egypt, to the United States, and in Canada's Permanent Mission to the UN. He served Canada's first diplomatic envoy to Baghdad, Iraq, after the fall of Saddam Hussein from 2003 to 2005, as Deputy Ambassador to Afghanistan and as head of the NATO Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar between 2008 and 2010. As a practitioner of international relations, Ben's thematic interest has been in human rights and democracy. He founded the Democracy Unit at Global Affairs Canada, and worked closely with human rights activists in Iraq and Afghanistan. As Ambassador to Venezuela, Ben was an outspoken advocate of the restoration of the popular sovereignty of Venezuelans after the suspension of constitutional order in early 2017.