Cheryl Urban is Assistant Deputy Minister of the Africa Branch at Global Affairs Canada, where she leads the department's diplomatic, trade and development engagement across the continent.
She oversees the implementation of Canada's Africa Strategy, launched in March 2025, which sets out a renewed approach to the relationship built on economic cooperation, peace and security, and partnership with African institutions. Under the strategy her branch established the Africa Trade Hub, which coordinates Canada's economic diplomacy and its trade and investment engagement across African markets.
A career public servant, she has appeared frequently before the Standing Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade and the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development on Canada's engagement in Africa, and previously served as Assistant Deputy Minister for the Sub-Saharan Africa Branch.
At Africa Accelerating 2026 in Toronto, she delivers the Official Government of Canada Address at the Opening Ceremony, and joins the Chamber's Members' Roundtable with corporate members and sponsors on the preceding afternoon. She previously addressed Chamber members in Toronto in March 2026 in Canada's Africa Strategy in Action.