Stengel wrote for The New Yorker, Rolling Stone and Time, for which he covered the 1988 presidential campaign. In 1990, his book on apartheid caught the notice of Nelson Mandela, and Stengel was retained to ghostwrite Mandela’s autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom.” Stengel left Time in 2013 and the following year joined the State Department as Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Among other parts of his job, he was tasked with countering ISIS’ message.   read more

In 2009, Pareja received a very consequential assignment—he was made ambassador to neighboring Chile. He hadn’t been there long when he was recalled because a member of Peru’s armed forces was accused of spying for Chile. Pareja wasn’t gone long; he returned to Santiago after about a month. Much of Pareja’s energies were spent in negotiations with Chile over a disputed maritime boundary. He worked on it throughout his tenure.   read more

Most of his career has been spent advocating for Brazilian business. While stationed in Washington in 1984, Amaral was questioned by the Associated Press about Amazon deforestation. “Damage to the environment? This is something that can’t be taken too seriously,” he said, claiming that Brazil's forests are so vast that a small amount of damage would have little long-term effect. He later fought U.S. steel tariffs and promoted alcohol-fueled cars, ethanol being a huge industry in Brazil.   read more

In the mid-1990s, while working on his master’s in public policy at the National University of Singapore, Aung Lynn led the ministry’s Dept of Political Affairs. From 2004 to 2007, he was a minister/counselor in Burma’s permanent mission to the U.N.. By 2011, he was Director General for Association of the Southeast Asian Nations affairs department. In the months before he was given the Washington assignment, Aung Lynn was Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.   read more

Wouters came to the United States in 1995 as a deputy permanent representative to the United Nations. There, he worked on political, military, economic and development issues as well as participating in the creation of the International Criminal Court. Wouters returned to Belgium in 2001 as coordinator of the Belgian presidency and led the Department of European Coordination and Integration. In 2003, he was made permanent representative to the Political and Security Committee of the EU.   read more

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).   read more

Teikmanis was recognized by human rights activists when he found protesters against the Soviet-backed regime not guilty for their part in a non-approved demonstration. In 2005, he was named ambassador to Russia, at one point angering Moscow saying the “Russian state is unfriendly to Latvia.” At a Moscow press conference, he was splattered with fruit juice by two members of the National Bolshevik Party protesting the detention of their leader by the Latvian government.   read more

Lucas’ first assignment in the United States came in 1995, when she was named deputy permanent representative to the United Nations in New York. She served there until 2000, when she returned to Luxembourg as the ministry’s deputy director for political affairs. Lucas got her first ambassadorial assignment, to Portugal with concurrent accreditation to Cabo Verde in 2003. She returned home the following year to serve as director for political affairs.   read more

Sawerengera was appointed as ambassador to Brazil in 2014 but served there only a short time before he and the ambassadors to the United Nations and to the United States were rotated. The move provoked some controversy in Malawi, with speculation that the UN ambassador had fallen out of favor and other reports that Sawerengera may have been involved in a questionable deal for Brazilian maize.   read more

In 2008, Zackios took over as chairman of the Nitijela’s Committee on Public Accounts. He lost that seat in 2012 after an election in which he won a majority of the vote from constituents in the Marshall Islands, but lost when votes from islanders in the United States were counted. In 2013, Zackios was made regional director of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, the principal technical and scientific organization in the region. He held that post until taking the Washington assignment.   read more

In 2000, Jaeger moved to the aviation IT company Atraxis Management Services in Zurich as a vice president but moved to Swiss International Air Lines the next year as vice president for aeropolitical affairs. There, he worked on the dissolution of Swissair and the formation of Swiss International as a subsidiary of Germany’s Lufthansa. Jaeger left Swiss in 2005 to become a member of the board of the European Free Trade Association.   read more

Kawar went to work in the Amman office of Jordanian Prince Hassan as a researcher and in press relations. In 1991, she took over as director of Hassan’s Paris office, remaining until 2000 when she assumed the directorship of King Abdullah’s office there. The following year, Kawar was named Jordan’s ambassador to France. She added the Holy See and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to her portfolio in 2002 and Portugal in 2005.   read more

Stoytchev was back in Washington in 2008 as deputy chief of mission in the embassy. He remained there until 2011, serving as chargé d’affaires from 2009 to 2010. Beginning in 2012, Stoytchev served as foreign policy secretary to Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev until being tapped as ambassador to the U.S. Stoytchev said one of his major goals is to get his country added to the U.S. visa waiver program, which would facilitate travel by Bulgarians.   read more

Pierre had helped to unite Mexico’s bishops and establish better links between the church and its followers. His posting to Washington was made upon the retirement of Nuncio Vigano, who had blindsided Pope Francis by setting up a meeting with Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who broke the law by refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses. Pierre is seen as a good fit for the job because his experience in Mexico is considered helpful, given the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president.   read more

Canjura’s background is in medicine, not diplomacy. She was ambassador to Guatemala from 2009 to 2012. She was then made ambassador to Russia, where she helped open El Salvador’s embassy. She was also credentialed to Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Canjura was in Moscow until being moved to Washington.   read more

Phillips-Spencer spent much of his career working in close proximity to Trinidad and Tobago’s presidents. When he returned there in 2011, he was named commanding officer of the army. In 2013, he was made vice chief of the defense force and was thought to be in line to be chief. However, when the incumbent chief retired, Phillips-Spencer was passed over and a few months later was sent to Washington as ambassador.   read more