HOF095: Scott Mullin

Scott Mullin joined the foreign service directly after completing a BA in Political Science at Carleton University. He was assigned to the foreign service of the federal Department of Manpower and Immigration.   After a year of training, which included three months in Hong Kong, he was posted to what was then called the Commission of Canada in Hong Kong.  Scott arrived in Hong Kong just weeks before a freighter, the Hai Hong, arrived off the coast of Malaysia with some 4,000 Vietnamese “boat people”.  Scott was sent to assist colleagues at the Canadian High Commission in Singapore and in addition to helping them interview and process refugees off the Hai Hong he spent time in the new refugee camps along Malaysia’s east coast.  Returning to Hong Kong, he spent the next three years leading the selection of boat people for resettlement in Canada in Hong Kong and Macau.

After Hong Kong Scott was posted to Nairobi where he led the expansion of Canada’s refugee resettlement program covering 17 countries in eastern Africa.  Later assignments with the now integrated foreign service included Beirut, Director of the Media Relations office, Press Secretary to Secretary of State (or Minister) for External Affairs, re-opening Canada’s embassy in Tehran where he served as Charge d’affaires and as Senior Trade Commissioner in Hong Kong.   Scott left the foreign service in 1997 to join the Canadian Bankers Association as Vice President, Pubic Affairs.  He then joined TD Bank Group as VP Government Relations and later VP Corporate Citizenship.  Scott retired in 2016 and continues to work as a public affairs consultant.

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