Jess Dutton

Ambassador of Canada to the Republic of Indonesia
and the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste
(Canada)

Jess Dutton is a native of Montréal, Québec. He has a Bachelor of Arts Honours and Master of Public Administration from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

He has worked with the Federal Government since 1998, starting as a Ministerial Advisor to the Minister of Canadian Heritage (Culture and Communications).  In 2005, he joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade as Director of the division responsible for Intergovernmental Relations.

In 2006, he was appointed Counsellor for Political, Economic and Public Affairs at the Canadian Embassy in Seoul, Republic of Korea. In this capacity, he was also accredited to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

In 2009, Mr. Dutton was appointed as Director of the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar, Afghanistan. In this capacity, he led a bi-national, civil-military organization responsible for the implementation and coordination of reconstruction and development activities throughout the province.

In 2010, he was appointed Deputy Ambassador at Canada’s Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.

In 2011 he was appointed Executive Director of the Stabilization and Reconstruction Programs division, as well as Deputy Head of Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force (START), based in Ottawa. The START program was responsible for managing a $100-million program in support of peace and security initiatives.

In 2014, he was appointed Deputy High Commissioner to India, with accreditation to Nepal and the Kingdom of Bhutan.

Mr. Dutton was appointed as the Ambassador of Canada to the Arab Republic of Egypt, in August 2017.  He returned to Canada in 2020 as the Director General of the Middle East Bureau at Global Affairs Canada. 

In 2023, Mr. Dutton was appointed as Canada’s Ambassador to the Republic of Indonesia, with accreditation to the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste.