Meet the team
Geneviève Jean-van Rossum
Ambassador and Permanent Representative of France to the International Maritime Organization
A career diplomat, Geneviève Jean-van Rossum has been appointed Ambassador and Permanent Representative of France to the International Maritime Organization in 2019.
Before that, she held bilateral positions in the Embassies of France in Haiti, Jordan and Burundi, in Paris (Southern Africa desk, US desk), as well as multilateral positions abroad and in Paris (Permanent Representation to the UN in Vienna, Permanent Delegation to UNESCO). She has also occupied support functions in the field of finance and human ressources at the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs.
In the most recent period, she was Special Representative in charge of Bioethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (2016 to 2019).
She holds a bachelor degree in Applied Foreign Languages and a master’s degree in International relations from the Paris Institut d’Etudes Politiques.
Damien Chevallier
Deputy permanent representative of France to the International Maritime Organization
Damien Chevallier has international technical and legal expertise which he acquired through the various positions he has held throughout his career.
He was first trained as a Technician and then as a military naval construction engineer. He spent the first part of his career (1994-2005) in the military naval industry and occupied several positions in shipyards, engineering offices, research centers and program directorate of the French Ministry of Defense. He was working at the time on surface ship and submarine design projects both for the domestic and export markets. In 2005, he joined the Maritime Safety Division of the French Directorate for Maritime Affairs. He was appointed Rapporteur for the Central Safety Commission. Thereafter he served as Deputy Head of the Regulation Unit and then became Head of the Regulation and Ship Safety and Security Unit.
Since 2006 he has been part of the French delegation for the IMO’s BLG Sub-committee, then PPR Sub-committee and MEPC and MSC Committees. In particular, he has followed IMO’s work on the BWM Convention implementation, the revision of MARPOL Annex VI, the Hong Kong Convention, and greenhouse gases emissions reduction.
In 2016, he became Deputy Director of the French Maritime Safety Division and finally joined the Permanent Representation of France to the IMO in September 2018 as Deputy Permanent Representative. As an Administrator for Maritime Affairs, he is also Maritime Attaché to the French Embassy in the United Kingdom.
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Maxime Legathe
Maritime Attaché to the Permanent Representation of France to the IMO
Maxime Legathe, Administrator of Maritime Affairs, joined the French Maritime Affairs in 2003 after a career in the French Navy which included embarkations on combat ships, support ships and an overseas posting. Between 2003 and 2012, he worked mainly as a ship safety inspector in the ports of Saint-Nazaire and Dunkirk. He completed his training from 2008 to 2010 at the school for officers of the technical and administrative corps of maritime affairs and obtained a master’s degree in Law and Safety of Maritime and Oceanic Activities at the University of Nantes.
From 2012 to 2016, he was assigned to the territorial unit of Mayotte as deputy to the head of the territorial unit, which involves many international issues such as : regional cooperation, port State control within the Indian Ocean Memorandum of Understanding, rescue at sea in the context of the fight against illegal immigration.
He then successively managed the ship security centres of Boulogne-sur-mer and Dunkerque between 2016 and 2022, whose activity is dominated by port State control and international maritime passenger traffic.
He joined the crew of the French Permanent Representation to the IMO on 1 September 2022.
Stan Lucide
Assistant to the French Representation to the International Maritime Organization
A recent graduate with a Master’s degree in European and International Studies, Stan Lucide completed his university studies by obtaining a diploma in Modern Standard Arabic from the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales in 2019.
Passionate about international issues, Stan Lucide completed an internship at the Ministry of the Armed Forces before joining the Communication Department of the City of Paris as a social media analyst. He joined the team of the French Permanent Representation to the IMO on 1 November 2022.