About The Speaker
Rod Johnson graduated with a B.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Alberta in 1969.  After graduation he was employed for three years in the Agriculture Division of Statistics Canada.

In 1972 he joined the Trade Commissioner Service, the foreign service arm of the federal Department of Industry, Trade and Commerce.

His foreign service assignments to date:

• Canadian High Commission in Wellington, New Zealand, as Second Secretary (Commercial) 1973 to 1976.
• Canadian Embassy in Moscow, USSR as First Secretary (Commercial), 1978 to 1980.
• Canadian Consulate General, Los Angeles, as Consul and Trade Commissioner from 1980 to 1984.
• Canadian Embassy, Prague, Czechoslovakia as Counsellor (Commercial)  from 1987 to 1990.
• Canadian Consulate General, Düsseldorf, Germany as Consul and Senior Trade Commissioner from 1990 to 1994.
• Canadian Consulate General, Seattle as Consul & Senior Trade Commissioner from June of 1998 to 2002.
• Canadian Consualte General, Dallas as Consul & Senior Trade Commissioner beginning September 14, 2005.

In addition to the 20 years of service in Canadian missions abroad, Rod has worked in Canada on several occasions including secondments with the Department of Regional Industrial Expansion in Vancouver (84-87) and Agriculture and Agri-food Canada (94-96) .  From 1996 to 1998 he acted as Manager for International Business Development Training at the Canadian Foreign Service Institute and from 2002 to 2005, he managed the regional office of International Trade Canada in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan