Canada’s new ambassador to Latvia, Claire A. Poulin, has presented her credentials to President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, the president’s press office has announced.

Poulin replaces Robert Andrigo, who served as ambassador since 2002.

Poulin most recently worked in the Parliament of Canada as director general of International and Interparliamentary Affairs and as chief of protocol, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Educated at the Université de Provence in French literature and civilization, Poulin’s early career took her to the Dominican Republic and Tunisia. She joined the foreign affairs department in 1991 and has worked in Argentina and France.

Canada opened its embassy in Rīga in 1993. The embassy also serves Canada’s interests in Estonia and Lithuania.

Dermot Desmond, the Irish millionaire whose investments include the Celtic Football Club in Scotland and London City Airport in England, has acquired just under a third interest in Rietumu Banka, Latvia’s fourth-largest financial institution.

Desmond also will join an expanded board of directors, Rietumu Banka announced Aug. 29.

“The bank has a tremendous track record and we share a common vision for the future development of the bank: to be the leading corporate and wealth management bank in the Baltic region and CIS,” Desmond said in a statement released by the bank. “I am impressed by Latvia’s rapid pace of development and by its emergence as a financial centre for the region.”

The investor has acquired a total of 33.1 percent of the bank’s shares by purchasing shares from other investors and from a recent bank offering.

Rietumu Banka was founded in 1992 by American investor Tony Levin, at the time vice president of the Diners Club company. Rietumu merged with Saules Banka in 2001.

The bank at the end of June was ranked fourth in Latvia, with total assets of nearly LVL 708 million.

A new Latvian honorary consulate has opened in the southwestern Norwegian city of Stavanger, bringing to eight the number of Latvian diplomatic offices in the country.

Latvia’s ambassador to Norway, Māris Klišāns, attended an Aug. 25 ceremony in Stavanger to welcome new Honorary Consul Håkon Tranberg, according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The ambassador said he expects broad cooperation to develop between Latvia and the Rogaland region of Norway in business, culture, tourism and education.

Besides the honorary consul in Stavanger and the ambassador in Oslo, Latvia has an honorary consul in Bergen, Trondheim and Tromsø and two in Kristiansund. An honorary consul general also is found in Oslo.