[2] In the latter, he was a delegate from 1984 to 1985 to the Stockholm Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which was aimed at developing confidence-building measures between the Soviet Union and NATO during the Cold War.
[5] The region was destabilized during the period by insurgencies by the Contras in Nicaragua and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in El Salvador.
In addition to these two conflicts, he also handled relations with Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, and Cuba, travelling to the region to meet with governments and opposition leaders during the time.
[4] He first studied Japanese at the U.S. State Department School in Yokohama from 1989 to 1991, before heading Diet (parliamentary) Relations at the Canadian embassy in Tokyo for four years.
Mank was appointed Ambassador of Canada to Indonesia and Timor-Leste in 2003, where he led the Canadian response to the 2004-05 tsunami crisis in the northern Sumatra province of Aceh.
[8][9] He established Canada House in Aceh as a unique platform for all Canadian stakeholders involved in delivering emergency and recovery aid in the disaster zone.
[4] He also guided Canada-Indonesia counter-terrorism training and cooperation following numerous terrorist attacks on the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta and other locations in Bali and Java.
He also oversaw the civilian Afghanistan Task Force, accompanying Governor General and Commander in Chief, Michaëlle Jean, as well as Foreign Minister Peter McKay, on separate visits to the front lines in Kandahar and Kabul in 2007 and 2008.
[6] He handled government relations, public policy, and business development across Asia for the corporation that invented the smartphone and dominated the market at the time.
Later, he became President Asia-Pacific for SICPA of Switzerland, where he led a team offering technologies to governments and corporations for the tracking and tracing of illicit trade.
Led by a single mother of Irish-Scottish heritage, nee Mary Montgomery, the family subsisted in a small wooden cottage in New Dundee, before moving to Kitchener, Ontario.