Ambassador Peter Van De Velde took up his duties as Permanent Representative of Belgium to the OECD on 4 September 2024.
Ambassador Van De Velde started his diplomatic career in 1990 with a career spanning over three decades in various roles within the Belgian Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs (FPS) and the European External Action Service (EEAS).
He served as the First Secretary at the Belgian Embassy in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, from 1992 to 1996, before becoming First Secretary at the Permanent Representation of Belgium to the United Nations in New York, representing Belgium in various UN committees, including the Budget and Legal Committees, and coordinating Belgian exports to Iraq through the UN Oil-for-Food mechanism (1996-2000).
Between 2000 and 2002, Ambassador Van De Velde served as Director of Corporate Communications at the FPS. He then became the Deputy Head of Mission at the Belgian Embassy in Lisbon (2003-2005). From 2005 to 2008, he served as the Trade Policy Director at the FPS, representing Belgium in the Trade Policy Committee and managing the International Trade and World Trade Organisation Unit.
From 2008 to 2011, Ambassador Van De Velde was the Deputy to the Security Policy Director at the FPS. In 2011-2012, he served in the EU Situation Room and represented the EU in crisis areas as a Deployable Security Information Officer at the European External Action Service (EEAS).
He then served as the Spokesperson of the Permanent Representation of Belgium to the EU from 2012 to 2016, liaising with the European Parliament and managing media relations. In 2016, he became Americas Director at the FPS before being appointed as Chair of the Council Working Party on Latin America & the Caribbean (COLAC) and Working Party on trans-Atlantic relations (COTRA) at the EEAS.
Prior to his appointment as Ambassador to the OECD, he was serving as the Ambassador of Belgium to Ukraine (2022-2024).
Ambassador Van De Velde holds Master's Degrees in Conference Interpreting and e-Business. His mother tongue is Dutch and he is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and has notions of German and Ukrainian. He is married to Mrs. Ariadne Petridis and has two children.
This biography was provided by the Delegation of Belgium to the OECD.