Dr. E. Angus Friday presented his credentials as Grenada’s ambassador to the United States to President Barack Obama on September 17, 2013. It is the second ambassadorial posting for Friday.

Friday, whose first name is Ethelstan, was born February 6, 1965, in Grenada. He attended primary and secondary school on the island, and then attended Waynesburg University in Pennsylvania, graduating in 1985 in pre-medical studies. Friday returned to Grenada for medical school, earning his degree from St. George’s University School of Medicine in 1991. Friday’s father, Dr. Stan Friday, had been associate dean at the medical school.

He worked as a physician in Grenada General Hospital until 1992, when he went to the University of Strathclyde in Scotland for a Master’s in Business Administration, which he received in 1993. Following that, Friday remained in Britain and worked as a product manager for the pharmaceutical company Merck until 1995. Then Friday founded two medical software start-up companies.

Friday returned to Grenada in 2004 to help with the family business, a bottled water company. He also was deputy chairman of Grenada’s board of tourism during this period.

Friday was given his first ambassadorial posting in 2007, representing Grenada at the United Nations, which he did until 2008, when there was a change in government in Grenada. While at the UN, Friday was a strong advocate for remediation of the effects of global climate change for Grenada and other island nations. In 2009, Friday went to the World Bank, where he was a specialist in international climate policy with an emphasis on small island nations and Africa. He was at the World Bank until his appointment to Washington.

Given his experience working on climate change, it’s perhaps not surprising that Friday is one of the few diplomats who rides his bicycle to work in Washington.

-Steve Straehley

To Learn More:

Grenada’s New War: Battling Climate Change (by Larry Luxner, Washington Diplomat)