Ambassador Diego Gómez Pickering was appointed as Consul General of Mexico to New York City in June of 2016. He is a career diplomat as well as a writer and journalist.
Prior to his arrival in New York he served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Mexico to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, from 2013 to 2016; as well as Director for Foreign Media for President Enrique Peña Nieto's office from 2012 to 2013.
He holds a B.A. in International Relations from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) in Mexico City; an M.A. in Cultural Development from Columbia University in New York City; and a Postgraduate degree in Journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) in New Delhi, India.
He has worked as a journalist for CNN in Mexico City and the Americas edition of the Wall Street Journal; and as an international correspondent for the Panamanian newspaper La Prensa, and various other Mexican and Hispano-American publications such as Reforma, Excelsior, and El Universal in the U.S., Mexico, East Africa and the Middle East.
Gómez Pickering has been a consultant and advisor to several UN-system agencies such as UNESCO, the United Nations' Public-Private Alliance for Rurual Development, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Office for Humanitarian Affairs Coordination (OCHA) and the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Between 2008 and 2011 he worked as a communications consultant for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Damascus, Syria.
In 2007 he was based in Kenya after being appointed as Political and Cultural Attaché to the Mexican Embassy in Nairobi. The Diplomatic Mission represented Mexico to six neighboring countries and was the focal point of Mexico to the United Nations' Human Settlements Program: HABITAT and to the United Nations Environmental Program.
He is the author of Los Jueves en Nairobi (Thursdays in Nairobi), published in 2010 and La Primavera de Damasco (Spring in Damascus), published in 2013; as well as more than a dozen books of prose and fiction. He has also published numerous editorials and academic and journalistic articles over the past 16 years for prestigious journals from Mexico, Latin America, Spain and the U.S., such as Foreign Affairs, the Journal of International Affairs and Letras Libres. His work has been translated into English, French, Swahili, Arabic and Russian.
Ambassador Gómez Pickering is an associate of the Mexican Council for International Affairs (COMEXI) and a member of the board of Child's Fund Mexico and the American Society of Mexico. He is fluent in English, French, Italian, Portuguese and German. He as been awarded the Victorian Order as Knight Commander by the British government and the Antonio José de Irisarri Order as Knight Commander by the Guatemalan government.
In this episode, Ambassador Gómez Pickering shares his one way ticket to biblical Babel. He also talks about what makes Mexico so special, what it was like presenting his credentials to Her Majesty The Queen, and key international issues today.
Ambassador Gómez Pickering is just one of the extraordinary guests featured on The One Way Ticket Show, where Host Steven Shalowitz explores with his guests where they'd go if given a one way ticket, no coming back! Destinations may be in the past, present, future, real, imaginary or a state of mind.
Steven's guests have included: Nobel Peace Prize Winner, President Jose Ramos-Horta; Legendary Talk Show Host, Dick Cavett; Law Professor, Alan Dershowitz; Broadcast Legend, Charles Osgood; International Rescue Committee President & CEO, David Miliband; Grammar Girl, Mignon Fogarty; Journalist-Humorist-Actor Mo Rocca; ; Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr.; Abercrombie & Kent Founder, Geoffrey Kent; Travel Expert, Pauline Frommer, as well as leading photographers, artists, writers and more.