Honorary consul Anne Deconinck in Boston: “I enjoy meeting interesting Belgians”

Anne Deconinck has a busy job in Boston (US), but still wanted to be an honorary consul there. She maintains contact with her compatriots and forms a link with the consulate general in New York. “I like meeting people and enjoy going to see something Belgian with other Belgians.”

Anne Deconinck has felt a drive to live abroad from a young age. For example, she went to the United Kingdom (UK) to study biochemistry at the age of only 18 – in 1988. Having gained a doctorate at Oxford, she was able to do a postdoc with a Fulbright scholarship at the Harvard Medical School in Boston. Following a two-year interlude in the UK, she based herself permanently in the Boston region. Today, she lives in Somerville, a Boston suburb.

Dealing with people

She started out there at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) – one of the most prestigious technical universities in the world. Among those she worked for was the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, a highly productive research institution that investigates cancer through a wide range of disciplines (biologists, engineers, ICT experts, etc.). Later on, she was able to move to Dragonfly Therapeutics, a biotech start-up that uses the power of the immune system to develop medication for combating cancer and auto-immune diseases, among other things.

She soon moved away from pure lab work. “I mainly enjoy dealing with people,” she says from Waltham. “That's why I took on more administrative and communication tasks. Currently, I'm responsible for recruiting personnel, drawing up press releases, handling our social media, maintaining relations with the Scientific Advisory Board and so on.”

Honorary consul in Boston

Precisely this fondness for dealing with people and helping them convinced her to become an honorary consul. “At MIT, I regularly received foreign delegations of ministers, ambassadors and so on, including from Flanders Investment & Trade (FIT), the Flemish trade agency,” she says as she begins her account. “That's because I'm quite good at explaining scientific matters to people who aren't scientists. FIT liked the fact that it was a Belgian giving the tour.”

In 2018, the Belgian honorary consul in Boston returned to Belgium. “FIT then suggested to the consulate general in New York that I might be a good candidate. I had a coffee with the former consul general, Cathy Buggenhout, but my initial reaction was: I don't have time for that.”

But Deconinck changed her mind. “It had just been New Year and I'd resolved to seek out more contact with the Belgians in the region. After all, I feel a great affinity with my compatriots – not just because they're Belgian, but also because they have the same migration history. And a role as honorary consul might not be paid, but it does offer a unique opportunity to meet people! So I leapt at it anyway.”

No strictly consular duties

And effectively, meeting Belgians is among her core duties. “Initially, I organised a meeting with Belgians every so often, but then I had to find a place for it and what have you. Nowadays, we keep in close contact over WhatsApp and we regularly go for a drink at a café. For the older Belgians and people with children, this is harder, but if the consul general is there or Princess Astrid, then they do come! There's also a really nice lady who organises a barbecue in her garden every year on 21 July.”

So Deconinck knows “her” Belgians pretty well – ideally placed to act as a point of contact for all manner of questions. With that said, she does not perform any strictly consular duties. “I don't issue any passports or visas myself,” she clarifies. “For a visa, I send them on to New York. And if a passport has expired, I tell them that a flying consul comes along once a year, after which they can sort it out by post. I have also had parents calling me because their child hadn't got off the plane. Then I look into that. It might be because the visa wasn't in order, for example. In principle, they can also contact me if someone is in hospital, but luckily that hasn't happened yet.”

Seeing the governor with Minister Lahbib

The COVID-19 period was exceptionally busy. “I got a whole host of e-mails from Belgians wanting to go home and then return to the US, or from Americans who wanted to visit family in Belgium. I had phone calls with people crying who couldn't go home to where their grandparents were on their deathbeds. But I couldn't do much – at least, not for those without dual nationality.”

She regularly gets questions from the consulate general in New York. “Which Belgians can we invite to meet that delegation? Which companies would be interesting to visit? Although the present consul general is so active that he probably knows more Belgians than I do by now,” she says with a smile.

Not only does she know the academic and business world in Boston well, she also has contacts in the political sphere. “The Mayor of Boston's International Affairs Office maintains close contact with foreign representatives in the region through WhatsApp and e-mail, and often invites us over. When Minister Lahbib was visiting, the consul general and I accompanied her when meeting the governor. Moreover, one to three times a year, I have the opportunity to meet other foreign consuls and honorary consuls, at the invitation of the Mayor of Boston, but also Harvard University and so on.”

Stromae and Lost Frequencies

A few times a year, the Belgian embassy in Washington organises a conference for the Belgian consuls and honorary consuls over Zoom. “Once or twice a year, it takes place in person. Thus far, I've only managed to go once, namely in April 2019. That was in Washington, where I was sworn in as an honorary consul. A meeting like that takes two days. With my job, it's not always easy to take three days' leave. Maybe I'll make it this year, in Atlanta.”

Anne Deconinck certainly does not regret taking the plunge. “In my role as an honorary consul, I've already met some very interesting Belgians – including from the biotech and pharmaceuticals world – and that's why I do it. I also really enjoy going to see something Belgian with other Belgians.”

She has some good memories from concerts by Stromae and Lost Frequencies, for example. “Sometimes, we watch a Belgian movie at a film festival as a group. I invite people and then we go for a drink first. You know, we Belgians do have a reason to be proud of what we've achieved. When I was living in the UK, they thought it impossible that there could be 10 famous Belgians. But now I know better: there are a whole host of very interesting Belgians. At the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, they have a great artwork collection from the Low Countries. Two couples – including one Belgian – have donated many works to it. I do like to head over there with a delegation.”