Hector Posset, a longtime member of Benin’s foreign ministry, took over as his country’s ambassador to the United States November 28, 2016. He is also accredited to Mexico, Barbados and Jamaica. Posset had been retired since October 2014. Before that, beginning in June 2011, he had been a minister-counselor in Benin’s Washington embassy, serving as political affairs officer.

Posset was born June 17, 1955, in Parakou, in the eastern part of Benin. He earned a B.A. in sociology/anthropology at the University of Abomey-Calavi in 1983 and went on to earn master’s degrees in English (1986) and legal sciences (1989) there. In 1993, Posset earned a diploma in diplomacy from the National School of Administration and Magistracy in Dakar, Senegal.

Posset began his career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1983 in the protocol branch. Later that year, he took over as a head of division in the Directorate of Legal Affairs. In 1986, he moved over to a similar role in the Department of Studies and Planning and two years later was made head of division in the Directorate of International Organizations.

Beginning in 1994, Posset served as head of the ceremonial service in the State Protocol Directorate, coordinating all of the official ceremonies of the president and was named the president’s head of protocol in 1996. The next year, he was made first counselor in Benin’s embassy in Ghana. He returned to the ministry in 2001 to lead the Department of Programming and Planning. The following year, Posset was made head of protocol for the High Court of Justice. In 2003, he went to Paris as first counselor to Benin’s mission to UNESCO. Posset began a stint in 2007 as an auditor/inspector in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both in its offices and at consular stations.

When he went to Washington in June 2011, in addition to his other duties, Posset was Benin’s representative to the Organization of American States, where it has observer status.

Posset was in the news in 2012 when one of the “bundlers” giving to President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign, Abake Assongba, was accused of fraud. Assongba claimed to head a foundation that built a school and had other projects in Benin, but Posset, then a minister-counselor at the embassy, told reporters that the embassy did not know anything about Assongba’s charity.

Posset is married and has three children. He formerly played on Benin’s national table-tennis team. He practices judo, swims and plays the piano. Posset speaks the indigenous languages of Yoruba and Goun, as well as French and English, and has a working knowledge of Fon and Mina.

-Steve Straehley

To Learn More:

Obama Campaign Reviewing Background of Volunteer Fundraiser Accused of Fraud (by Carol D. Leonnig, Washington Post)