The Washington Diplomat

Appointments - January 2008

CyprusDemetra Christodoulou assumed the position of second secretary/consul on Sept. 1.

Vasilis Polemitis departed the post of political counselor on Aug. 30.

Hungary
Imre Helyes departed the post of counselor/consul on July 31.

Szabolcs Nemes assumed the position of second secretary/consul on Aug. 21 having previously been responsible for Hungarian-French bilateral relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2004-07) and serving in Brussels as a consul (2000-04).

Lesotho
Matoka C. Phori assumed the position of first secretary on Aug. 31, replacing Tumelo E. Raboletsi, who departed the post on April 30. Phori previously worked at the Lesotho Highlands Project Training Centre. She holds a bachelor’s degree in urban and regional planning and a post-graduate certificate in education from the National University of Lesotho.

Norway
Wegger Christian Strommen became ambassador of Norway to the United States in October. Ambassador Strommen previously served as Norway’s permanent representative to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva (2005-07), deputy permanent representative of Norway’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York (2002-05), as well as deputy permanent representative to the U.N. Security Council and chairman of the Security Council Working Group on Peacekeeping Operations (2000-02). In addition, he was a visiting fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London (2000), prior to which he served as deputy foreign minister (state secretary) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1999 to 2000. Ambassador Strommen’s law background includes serving as an attorney and then partner in the law firm of Wiersholm, Mellbye & Beech (1996-98), legal advisor to the co-chairman of the European Union-United Nations International Conference on the former Yugoslavia (1993-95), and a junior district court judge in Norway (1986-87). Ambassador Strommen, who joined the Norwegian Diplomatic Service in 1984, holds a master’s of law degree from the University of Oslo Law School and has lectured on international law at Harvard, Columbia, New York University, the University of Bergen and University of Oslo. He is married to Rev. Cecilie J. Strommen and has two daughters.

Slovak Republic
Feder Roll assumed the position of counselor on Dec. 1, replacing Marcel Klimo, who departed the post on Nov. 30. Roll previously served in the Consular Section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as consul general in Munich, Germany.