Sylvie Lucas, a career member of Luxembourg’s Foreign Service, presented her credentials as ambassador to the United States to President Barack Obama on September 16, 2016.

Lucas was born June 30, 1965. She earned an M.A. in history at the University of Human Sciences in Strasbourg, France in 1988 and followed that up the next year with an M.A. in European political and administrative studies at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium.

She began working for Luxembourg’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs the following year, first in the Directorate for Political and Cultural Affairs and beginning in 1991 in the Directorate for International Economic Relations.

Lucas’ first assignment in the United States came in 1995, when she was named deputy permanent representative to the United Nations in New York. She served there until 2000, when she returned to Luxembourg as the ministry’s deputy director for political affairs. Lucas got her first ambassadorial assignment, to Portugal with concurrent accreditation to Cabo Verde in 2003. She returned home the following year to serve as director for political affairs, coinciding with Luxembourg’s presidency of the European Union in 2005.

In 2008, Lucas returned to New York as permanent representative to the UN. She served in 2009 as President of the body’s Economic and Social Council and in 2015 chaired the Inter-Governmental Negotiations on Security Council Reform. Lucas served at the UN until being assigned to Washington.

Lucas speaks Lëtzebuergesch, or Luxemborgish; French; English; German; and Portuguese.

-Steve Straehley

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