US Consul General Welcomed

President Mark was delighted to welcome Guest speaker and Honorary Member Elizabeth Kennedy Trudeau, US Consul General in Belfast to the Club Monday 08 April and presented her with her Rotary Pin and History of the Club book. Thanking for having her to the Club Ms Trudeau advised that she was at the start of her 3 year placement as US Consul General in Belfast and had been a Rotarian and Paul Harris Fellow when she lived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA as Director of Communications for a private charitable foundation. It had not been possible to continue as a Rotarian after joining the Foreign Service in 2004 and moving abroad.

Instead of addressing the Club she had a very well received and most interesting question and answer session.

She pointed out that she is a Career Diplomat not a political appointee serving across all administrations and revealed that she had joined under President George Bush and served under Secretaries of State Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Rex Tillerson and currently Mike Pompeo. The Consul General advised that her most recent assignment had been US Consul General in Lahore, Pakistan. Her other postings have included the US mission to NATO in Brussels, and press attaché to the US mission to Pretoria, South Africa as well as serving in Tunis and Nairobi.