The General Conference elected Ambassador Maria Zeneida Angara Collinson of the Philippines as President of the 61st IAEA General Conference. Ambassador Angara Collinson is the Philippine's Ambassador and Resident Representative to the international organizations in Vienna.

Ambassador Angara Collinson, a career diplomat, is the Philippines’ Resident Representative to the Vienna-based international organizations, including the IAEA. She is also her country’s ambassador to Austria with concurrent accreditation to Croatia, Slovenia and Slovakia.

Her previous diplomatic assignments included her time as Philippines Ambassador to Sweden with concurrent accreditation to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland from 2007 to 2012, Consul General in Sydney, Australia from 2002 to 2004 and in Hong Kong from 1999 to 2000. She was in charge of political and economic affairs at the Philippines’ Embassy in London from 1997 to 1999.

Ambassador Angara Collinson served in Tokyo as Third Secretary and Vice Consul responsible for economic affairs from 1980 to 1985 She was her country’s representative to the executive board of the ASEAN Promotion Center on Trade, Investment and Tourism from 1983 to 1984. She subsequently became Second and then First Secretary, Counsellor and then Minister Counsellor handling, a broad range of responsibilities including economic, consular and political affairs at the embassy.

At the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Angara Collinson has held several important positions including Director, Division of ASEAN Affairs from 1985 to 1986, Special Assistant to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 2004 to 2006 and Assistant Secretary of the Office of European Affairs from 2006 to 2007, a position she held again from 2013 to 2015.

She is a member of the IAEA Board of Governors.

She has a Master of Arts in Economics and Trade Policy from the Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Japanology with a focus in economics from the Tokyo University of Foreign Affairs.

Ambassador Angara Collinson is married and has a daughter.