Angela BogdanCouncil Member at AIIA SA Council Member
Angela J Bogdan is a former Canadian diplomat and most recently, served as Canada’s Consul General in Sydney, Australia, and prior to that as Chief of Protocol for Canada and Inspector General. She was also Champion for Women at Global Affairs Canada (GAC) for 6 years.
Ms. Bogdan also served abroad as High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Ambassador to Serbia and Montenegro, Political Counsellor in Warsaw, Deputy Political Advisor at Canada's Mission to NATO, and Vice Consul in Melbourne.
In Ottawa, Ms. Bogdan was formerly Director of the Global Partnership Programme, Canada's $1 billion cooperative threat reduction programme and held several other HQ Assignments as Head of Nuclear Policy in the Defence Relations Division and in the Asia Pacific Relations and the United Nations Divisions.
Gender has been a cross-cutting theme in Angela's career. Whilst posted to the Canadian Delegation to NATO, she established a Women's Peace and Security Forum providing support to female diplomats from the new partner countries together with female colleagues from other NATO delegations.
In Belgrade, she established a unique Peace Building Program aimed at empowering women's engagement in democratic elections.
In Sri Lanka, the Mission delivered a robust gender based post-tsunami development programme focused on women's income generation & livelihoods, women's reproductive health and combatting gender based violence.
On becoming Champion for Women at Global Affairs Canada in 2010, she founded the Women's Network (WN), now with a membership of 1000+ female diplomats, the focus of which has been on growing women's leadership in diplomacy, mentoring, training and engagement. Under her leadership, the WN has been the recipient of two Deputy Minister's Awards for excellence, having launched a successful promotion preparation program that resulted in women having been successfully promoted at higher levels than men to the executive level for the first time in Canadian diplomatic history and the highest proportion ever of serving female HOMs.
Employee driven and employee led, the GAC WN model has also been used as a reference point for the establishment of similar networks in UK, Australia, Mexico and with other Canadian federal departments and agencies, including the Canadian Space Agency.
Ms. Bogdan has also been a frequent presenter and participant on the subject of growing diverse leadership models in both the private and public sectors, notably in Canada, Taiwan, PNG, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and in Australia with the Women of the World Festival, KPMG, Canada Australia Chamber of Commerce, the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia, Air Canada and the Parliament of NSW.
In Australia, Angela also established the first female Heads of Mission Network in Sydney and was a member of The Female Social Network and Champions for Change.
Ms. Bogdan holds a BA in International Relations, a Bachelor of Education and a Masters Degree in Strategic Studies from York University in Toronto.