The etiquette of meeting an United States ambassador
A few days ago Niels Rot from the Impact Hub asked who’d be interested in meeting the United States Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein Mrs. Suzan “Suzi” LeVine.
She was stopping by the Impact Hub and offered to meet some startups for a short discussion and answer some questions. Naturally this sounded like a great opportunity to learn , we jumped at the chance & applied.
Issues of etiquette
After a few hours we got a reply and felt greatful for having been selected. Naturally if you only have a few minutes you need to prepare what you want to tell about your company and what question your going to ask. Besides thinking about the little pitch – I found myself in the middle of an even larger conundrum! What’s the proper way of addressing an ambassador? Mrs. LeVine? Suzi? Your cherished Excellency?
Figuring out how to say Hi
With some reading up on the internet it seems that there are three things one needs to take into acount:
- There’s a difference between addressing someone in writing and directly talking to someone
- It seems to depend wether you are a citizen of the same country as the ambassador or not
- Various local customs / traditions apply
In the case of me (Swiss citizen) addressing the United States Ambassador to Switzerland and Lichtenstein it would seem fitting to either use the term “Your Excellency” or “Madam Ambassador”. “The Honorable” would seem to apply if I were an American citzen.
The meeting at the Impact Hub Zurich
On the big day she arrived at the Impact Hub and we meet in a small meeting room and it turned out to be friendly, open discussion without any air of stiffness or undue formalism. She shared some views on entering the US market, answered our question, invited us to Select USA and offered us to put us in touch with the right people. Her husband Mr. Eric LeVine also came along and even more interesting he’s a seasoned entrepreneur with his own companies and shared some thoughts with us as well.
Loving America
Answering my own initial question, I decied to call her Madam Ambassador. This seemed like a respectful, yet not overly stiff way of addressing her. I introduced myself with a big smile and said “Hi, I’m Flurin and I love America”. The heart-felt chuckle of Madam Ambassador and her husband showed me that my fear of straining any international relationships by using the wrong form of address were probably unfounded. In hindsight, I might even have gotten away with “Hi Suzi” 😉
Thanks to Madam Ambassador and her husband Eric for taking the time to talk to us and thanks to Niels from the Impact hub for setting up the meeting.
Picture also includes Laure Morel , Semu Torres & Oliver Gessl