Riyad Insanally, a longtime member of Guyana’s Foreign Service, took over as his country’s ambassador to the United States on September 16, 2016.

Insanally attended secondary school at Queen’s College in Georgetown, Guyana, and graduated in 1977. He then went to Cambridge University, earning M.A. and MPhil degrees in modern languages and Latin American studies in 1981. While there he was coxswain on his college rowing team. After leaving Cambridge, he was a lecturer in Spanish at the University of Guyana for a few years, but in 1984 picked up his studies again, this time at Harvard. He earned a Ph.D. in romance languages and Latin American studies in 1990 and took time while there to play cricket as a club sport.

Insanally returned to Guyana and began his career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, concentrating on multilateral diplomacy and regional integration. Beginning in 1997, Insanally served as political adviser to two secretaries general of the Association of Caribbean States.

Insanally was sent to London in 2004 as senior trade adviser in Guyana’s High Commission there. He served at the same time as a commercial representative for the Guyana Sugar Corporation.

In 2006, he came to Washington as an adviser to the secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS). Two years later, Insanally was made the OAS representative in Trinidad and Tobago, a post he held until being named ambassador.

Insanally has two children and is married to Sarah Insanally. He speaks Spanish and French.

-Steve Straehley

To Learn More:

Official Biography (download)