Michael Small '78 was the Canadian Ambassador to Cuba from 2000 - 2003. A career diplomat, he joined the Canadian foreign service in 1981 and served in Malaysia, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Mexico before going to Cuba. In Ottawa, he was Assistant Deputy Minister, Global Issues and then Assistant Deputy Minister, Human Resources in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. His last posting was a Canada's High Commissioner to Australia from 2010 - 2014. Since his retirement from the foreign service in 2015, he has been a Fellow at the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and an Adjunct Faculty member of the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia. On this trip, he will talk about the Cuban Revolution and its legacy for Cuba's relations with the United States and the rest of the world.

Dr. Denise Jacques S78 was a trade commissioner in the Canadian foreign service. She was posted to Costa Rica and served in the Canadian missions Mexico, Tel Aviv, Sydney and Barbados. After retiring from the foreign service, she completed her Ph.D. in material history at the University of Ottawa and has been the president of a historical costume museum in Vancouver. While living in Havana with her husband, Michael Small, she researched and wrote a study of the literary connections between the Canadian Official Residence in Cuba and Ernest Hemingway. On the trip, she will talk about her research into the "Tiled Mansion".