Drawing upon his extensive knowledge from a career working for the European Union, Richard Tibbels will discuss options, challenges, and opportunities for cooperation with Canada in dealing with issues such as the Syrian refugee crisis, ISIS, relations with Russia, and the upcoming Paris climate change conference.

Mr. Tibbels took up his current position as Head of the US and Canada Division of the European External Action Service (EEAS) in September 2015. For the previous 4 years he was Head of the Eastern Partnership, Regional Cooperation (Arctic, Barents, Baltic, and Black Sea) and OSCE Division in the EEAS. Previously, he held a variety of positions in the EEAS and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for External Relations dealing with the EU’s Eastern and Southern neighbourhood, as well as the Secretariat-General of the Western European Union. He has degrees from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium and the University of Hull in the UK.