Eduardo González
Kareen Rispal arrived in Madrid on Saturday to become France’s first female ambassador to Spain, diplomatic sources told The Diplomat.
Rispal, who was appointed on January 13 by the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, fills the vacancy left more than half a year ago by Jean-Michel Casa following his retirement. According to the aforementioned sources, Rispal is expected to present the Style Copies of her Credentials to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs this coming Monday.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, will travel to Paris next Friday, where he will be received by his French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot.
A graduate in Public Law, her career began in the early 1990s as a technical advisor to Bernard Kouchner, then Minister of Health and Humanitarian Action (1991-1993). She subsequently held strategic positions, such as head of foreign relations of the Interministerial Committee for European Economic Cooperation Affairs and head of projects at the Center for Analysis and Foresight (CAP) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Kareen Rispal, a specialist in international legal and economic affairs, served as Deputy Director of Community Law and International Economic Law at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1997 to 2000. She then represented France as First Counsellor at the French Embassy in London.
In 2002, she headed the cabinet of Noëlle Lenoir, Minister Delegate for European Affairs, before becoming Deputy Director of European Cooperation. From 2006 to 2010, she served as Cultural Advisor at the French Embassy in the United States and from 2011 to 2014, she entered the private sector as Director of Sustainable Development and Public Affairs within the Lafarge group.
She returned to public service in 2014 to be appointed Director for the Americas and the Caribbean at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 2017 to 2022, she was French Ambassador to Canada. In 2022, in an international context marked by the war in Ukraine, Kareen Rispal was appointed Inspector General of Foreign Affairs.
