Appointments and Resignations
Ambassador to Zambia: Who Is Eric Schultz?
The Southern African nation of Zambia will soon have a new ambassador in the person of Eric T. Schultz, a longtime diplomat who most recently served as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, from 2010 to 2013. From 2004 to 2007, Schultz was deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe, and served as minister counselor for Economic Affairs at the embassy in Moscow, Russia, from 2007 to 2009. read more
Ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé & Príncipe: Who Is Cynthia Akuetteh?
Akuetteh served two straight stints as embassy deputy chief of mission, first at the embassy in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, from 2005 to 2007, and then at the embassy in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, from 2007 to 2009.
From 2009 to 2011, Akuetteh was the director in the Office of Central African Affairs, and from 2011 to 2012, she was the director in the Office of Europe, Middle East and Africa in the Bureau of Energy Resources.
read more
Ambassador to Norway: Who Is George Tsunis?
Tsunis is the chairman and CEO of Chartwell Hotels, which owns, develops and manages Hilton, Marriott and Intercontinental hotels in Pennsylvania, New York, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, and manages his family’s portfolio of real estate holdings.
Because of his business’s presence in northern Pennsylvania, Tsunis told the National Herald that he has taken advantage of the growth of natural gas fracking by “providing a lot of the picks and shovels for the Marcellus Shale.”
read more
Ambassador to Mauritania: Who Is Larry André, Jr.?
André, who has extensive experience in Africa, has been acting envoy and director of the Office of the Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan at the State Department since 2011. André served as deputy executive director for the Bureau of African Affairs from 2010 to 2011. read more
Ambassador to Morocco: Who Is Dwight Bush, Sr.?
Nominated August 1 to serve as the next ambassador to Morocco, businessman Dwight L. Bush, Sr., was a leading campaign contribution bundler for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, raising more than $500,000. Bush is the president of D. L. Bush & Associates, a Washington, DC-based financial advisory and business consulting firm. read more
Ambassador to Timor-Leste: Who Is Karen Clark Stanton?
Karen Clark Stanton has been executive director in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs since 2009. From 2008 to 2009, Stanton was the deputy executive director in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, rising to executive director in 2009. read more
Ambassador to Lesotho: Who Is Matthew Harrington?
Matthew T. Harrington has been the director of the Office of Analysis for Africa in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the State Department since 2012.
From 2010 to 2012, Harrington served as a foreign policy advisor to the Commander of United States Army South, the army component of U.S. Southern Command. read more
Ambassador to Argentina: Who Is Noah Mamet?
Between 1995 and 2002, Mamet helped Gephardt raise more than $238 million for Democratic congressional campaigns, committees and other political groups. Although he worked as a campaign contribution bundler for Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2008, Mamet became a key player in President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, bundling more than $500,000 for the President. read more
Ambassador to Niger: Who Is Eunice Reddick?
Reddick served her first ambassadorship as ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé and Principe from November 2007 to December 2010, followed by a brief stint as diplomat in residence at Howard University. Reddick has been director of the Office of West African Affairs in the Bureau of African Affairs at the Department of State since 2011. read more
Ambassador to Palau: Who Is Amy Hyatt?
After law school, Hyatt was a litigation attorney in San Francisco until 1985. “I liked practicing law, but thought...I’d do one tour then go back to real life in San Francisco as a lawyer,” Hyatt told an interviewer in 2011. As it turned out, Hyatt stayed and is now a 28-year veteran of the Foreign Service. read more
Ambassador to the Philippines: Who Is Philip Goldberg?
In 2006, Goldberg was named an ambassador for the first time, and sent to La Paz, Bolivia, for an intended three-year term that ended after two years with Goldberg’s expulsion as a persona non grata. A series of incidents in 2007 and 2008 indicating that U.S. embassy personnel were attempting to recruit Peace Corps volunteers and visiting American scholars as spies raised tensions. read more
Ambassador to Cameroon: Who Is Michael Hoza?
Career diplomat Michael S. Hoza has been management counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia since 2010. From 2007 to 2010 Hoza was management counselor and acting deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. read more
Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago: Who Is John Estrada?
John L. Estrada is a native Trinidadian who has been senior manager for Lockheed Martin Training Solutions since 2008. Estrada immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 14 and enlisted in the Marine Corps at the age of 18 in September 1973, staying 34 years and serving as sergeant major of the Marine Corps, the highest-ranking enlisted Marine, from 2003 to 2007. read more
Ambassador to Namibia: Who Is Thomas Daughton?
from 2003 to 2006, Daughton served as deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Algiers, Algeria, from 2006 to 2009, where he got involved in a minor kerfuffle over a travel book about author Michael Mewshaw’s 4,000-mile trek across North Africa, including a visit to the U.S. embassy and a chat with Daughton. According to the book, Daughton was unusually—and undiplomatically—frank with Mewshaw, stating for example that Algeria’s “government is sclerotic and self-serving.” read more
Ambassador to Italy and San Marino: Who Is John Phillips?
In 1988, Phillips founded his own law firm, Phillips & Cohen, based in Washington, DC, to specialize in whistleblower cases. At his Senate confirmation hearing, Phillips testified that his firm had helped recover $55 billion from companies that were defrauding the government. Phillips is the founder of Taxpayers Against Fraud, a nonprofit that promotes the use of the False Claims Act and its qui tam provisions to fight fraud against the government. read more
Ambassador to the United Kingdom: Who Is Matthew Barzun?
He raised more than half a million dollars for Obama, according to OpenSecrets.org, and he donated $4,600 of his own money. He also contributed $25,000 to Obama’s inauguration fund. Barzun and his family contributed more than $290,000 to political campaigns and groups during the 2008 election cycle.
Barzun served as Ambassador to Sweden from August 2009 to late 2011. He returned to the U.S. to serve as National Finance Chair for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.
read more