Marie-Anne Coninsx was the first Ambassador at Large for the Arctic of the European Union (EU) from September 2017 to October 2019. She previously was EU Ambassador to Canada (2013-2017), after serving four years as EU Ambassador to Mexico. In Canada, she extensively visited the Canadian Arctic.
Her other postings as EU diplomat, included having served as the number two at the EU Delegations in New York (US) and in Geneva (CH), providing her with an extensive experience on multilateral issues.
Marie-Anne Coninsx has been an official of the European Union for 35 years. She started her career in the European Commission at the Legal Service and worked during 12 consecutive years as a Staff Member at Cabinets of three Commissioners, dealing respectively with External Relations and Trade; Internal Market; EU Development Policy, and with relations with the European Parliament. She also worked at the External Relations Department at the European Commission, overseeing relations between the European Union and Latin America.
She studied law at Ghent University in Belgium and did post-graduate studies at Cambridge University (UK) – which included studying Law of the Sea, and at European University Centre in Nancy (France).
Marie-Anne Coninsx is Belgian. She is fluent in Dutch, French, English, German and Spanish.
Gilles t’Serstevens joined the Egmont Institute in January 2022 as Project Manager for the Education & Training Programme. After obtaining a master’s degree in political science at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (2018), he served as an academic collaborator, mainly in the fields of diplomacy and development cooperation, at the Belgian Embassy in Rwanda (2019-2021).
Nicola Lennon joined the Egmont Institute in January 2022 as Communications Officer. Originally from Ireland, she has lived in Dublin, London, and is now based in Brussels. She has a wide variety of experience in fields as diverse as bookselling, intellectual property, media-related projects, and life coaching.
