HOM Appointments

(Note that none of the appointees has a foreign service background, not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Diplomatic Appointments

(No. 369 - November 19, 2010 - 3:45 p.m. ET) The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today announced the following diplomatic appointments:

Cassie Doyle becomes Consul General in San Francisco (United States of America).

The Honourable Loyola Hearn becomes Ambassador to Ireland.

Judith A. LaRocque becomes Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, in Paris.

John F. Prato becomes Consul General in New York City (United States of America).

Biographical Notes

Cassie Doyle (BA [Sociology], University of Victoria, 1976; MA [Social Policy and Administration], Carleton University, 1983) was appointed deputy minister of natural resources in June 2006. Ms. Doyle has several years of executive experience at the municipal, provincial and federal levels of government in Canada. Before joining Natural Resources Canada, she served as associate deputy minister of Environment Canada. She also served on the Board of Directors of the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. Prior to joining the federal government, Ms. Doyle held a number of senior positions in British Columbia’s government, including chief executive officer of British Columbia Assets and Land Corporation, and deputy minister of environment, lands and parks. She began her public service career working in housing and urban development with the City of Ottawa. Ms. Doyle succeeds Stewart G. Beck.

The Honourable Loyola Hearn (BA, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1969) worked as a teacher in Renews and Trepassey, N.L., prior to joining the provincial government. He served in the Province’s House of Assembly from 1982 to 1993, and was minister of education from 1985 to 1989, before entering federal politics. Mr. Hearn was elected to Parliament in 2000, and he served until 2008. He served as Progressive Conservative Party House leader, Conservative Party House leader, Opposition House leader, Canadian Heritage critic, Public Works and Government Services critic, critic of the leader of the government in the House of Commons and Fisheries and Oceans critic. On February 6, 2006, following his victory in the 2006 federal election, he was named minister of fisheries and oceans. In September 2008, Mr. Hearn announced that he would not stand for re-election. He and his wife, Maureen, have a son, David, and a daughter, Laurita. Mr. Hearn succeeds Patrick Binns.

Judith A. LaRocque (BA Honours [Political Science], Carleton University, 1979; MA [Public Administration], Carleton University, 1992) has broad and varied experience in government. She started her career in 1979 at the Public Service Commission. She was a procedural officer at the House of Commons from 1982 to 1984. She has occupied the position of chief of staff to the government leader in the Senate and to the minister of state for federal-provincial relations and has been executive assistant to the minister of justice and attorney general for Canada. From 1990 to 2000, she was the secretary to the governor general, as well as secretary general of the Order of Canada and of the Order of Military Merit and herald chancellor of Canada. In 2000, Ms. LaRocque became associate deputy minister of Canadian heritage. In April 2002, she became deputy minister of Canadian heritage. Ms. LaRocque succeeds Paul-Henri Lapointe.

John F. Prato (MPA, Queen’s University, 1989; MBA, Queen’s University, 1991) is a certified financial analyst charterholder. He worked as a managing director in the Equity Capital Markets (ECM) group at TD Securities, the investment banking division of The TD Bank Financial Group. As a member of the ECM group since 1998, he was responsible for senior client coverage of a wide variety of leading Canadian companies. From 1996 to 1998, Mr. Prato worked in merchant banking with TD Capital Group Ltd. with a variety of mandates, including private equity, mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buy-outs and early-stage investing. Mr. Prato has served on the Board of Trustees of the Royal Ontario Museum, and on the Executive Committee of that board. He currently sits on the boards of the St. Michael’s Hospital Foundation, the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research and CommunityLend Inc. Mr. Prato succeeds Dan Sullivan.