Cecilia Kiku Ishitani

Born in Curitiba, Paraná, on 12 April 1971. She holds a degree in Law and has been a career diplomat since 1996, after concluding her studies at the Brazilian Diplomatic Academy. She also holds a post-graduate degree in Foreign Trade from Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Brasília-DF, and a Masters degree in Public Administration (MPA) from Columbia University, NY.  She served at the Brazilian Consulate General in New York, at the Brazilian Embassy to Colombia and at the Brazilian Embassy to the United Kingdom.

In the Foreign Ministry headquarters in Brasilia, she has worked as an Assistant to the Director General of the Trade Promotion Department and to the Undersecretary General for Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Pacific.  In the seven years prior to her present appointment, she was the Head of Japan and Korean Peninsula Division, acting Director of East Asia Department, Assistant and Deputy-Chief of Staff to the Secretary-General and subsequentially Director General of the Department of Japan, Korean Peninsula and the Pacific.