Regional Director, North America, NATO DIANA

Christine Hanson has had a distinguished career spanning over two decades in public service, both in Canada and abroad. She is currently serving as Regional Director for North America of NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) Regional Director.

Christine's early professional work was with Global Affairs Canada, where she held a variety of diplomatic roles. She served as a senior diplomat at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. and worked also at Canada’s Mission to the United Nations in New York.

After many years of living and working abroad, Christine returned to her home province of Nova Scotia. She served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, Executive Director and Chief Administrative Officer of the Mass Casualty Commission, and most recently as the Regional Director of International Trade for Atlantic Canada at Global Affairs Canada. In this role, she led a team across the region that helped Canadian businesses expand into global markets and promoted economic growth through exports.

Christine is an experienced board director, currently serving on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Red Cross since 2020.

Christine earned degrees in law, public administration, and political science from Dalhousie University in Halifax. She later earned a graduate degree in international law from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. From 2015-2016, she was an International Women’s Forum Global Leadership Foundation Fellow at Harvard Business School and INSEAD in France.