Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Luis E. Arreaga, a member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of minister-counselor, was nominated by President Barack Obama on April 21, 2010, to serve as U.S. ambassador to Iceland. Arreaga’s selection follows last year’s failed attempt to place another career diplomat, Robert Connan, in the post. Connan withdrew his name for reasons unknown.
Arreaga was born and raised in Guatemala, before immigrating to the United States. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee with a master’s degree in management and a PhD in economics.
Arreaga’s overseas postings have included serving as first secretary in the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva and in the American embassy in Spain, as well as a program economist at the U.S. Agency for International Development missions in Peru, El Salvador, and Honduras.
From 1999 to 2000 he served as special assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs in the State Department. He then worked as deputy director of the State Department’s Operations Center from 2000-2001.
He later served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Panama, U.S. Consul General in Vancouver, Canada and as director of the executive secretariat staff at the State Department in Washington, DC.
Prior to being selected for the Iceland ambassadorship, Arreaga served as director of the Office of Recruitment, Examination and Employment in the Bureau of Human Resources. The office is responsible for the recruitment and hiring of all Foreign Service personnel and the recruitment of civil service employees.
Arreaga and his wife, Mary, have two sons and one daughter.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Iceland (AllGov)
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