Bart Ouvry
Biography
Bart Ouvry is Director-General of the Egmont Institute. He joined the Institute in October 2026, after serving as the Director-General of the AfricaMuseum in Tervuren. Prior to this, he had an extensive diplomatic career representing the European Union, serving successively as the EU Ambassador in Bamako, Mali, and in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
He holds Master’s degrees in Modern History and Communication Studies from Ghent University. Before his ambassadorial appointments for the EU, he held various senior positions within the Belgian diplomatic service. This includes serving as Director of Human Rights and Democracy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brussels, and as the Belgian Ambassador to Kenya, where he was concurrently accredited to Eritrea, Somalia, the Seychelles, the Comoros, and Madagascar, as well as acting as the Permanent Representative to UNEP and UN-Habitat.
Earlier in his career, he served as Spokesperson and Head of the Press Service for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Consul-General and Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Belgian Embassy in Paris. Between 1986 and 2000, his work as a diplomatic officer spanned multilateral and bilateral postings in Brussels, Vienna, and Kuwait. Outside of his professional duties, he is passionate about history, art, literature, and music, and enjoys cooking, gardening, and hiking in the mountains.