U.S. President Barack Obama announced his intention to nominate Geoffrey Pyatt as the next U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, the White House said on Feb. 26.
Pyatt, a Senior Foreign Service officer whose 22-year State Department
career has focused on Asia and Latin America, will become the eighth ambassador
to the country, replacing current Ambassador to Ukraine John Tefft.
Unlike his
predecessors, he won’t arrive on Ukrainian soil with diplomatic experience in
the region, though.
Pyatt, credited for strengthening relations between the U.S. and India,
has served as principal deputy assistant secretary of the South and Central
Asia Affairs Bureau since May 2010. Prior to that, from August 2007, he was
deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Mission to the International Atomic Energy
Agency and International Organizations in Vienna.
He served from 2002 to 2007 at the U.S. Embassy in New
Delhi, first as minister counselor for political affairs and beginning in June 2006
as deputy chief of mission. In the latter role he served as chief operating
officer for one of the United States’ largest and fastest growing foreign
missions.
Prior to his New Delhi assignment, he was an economic officer at the
American Consulate General in Hong Kong.
From 1997 to 1999 Pyatt was principal officer of the American Consulate
in Lahore.
While in Washington, D.C. he
served as director for Latin America on the National Security Council staff
from 1996 to 1997, special assistant to the deputy secretary of state from 1995
to 1996 and staff assistant to the assistant Secretary of State for Latin
America in 1994. He was political officer in New Delhi, India from 1992 to
1994, and economic officer and vice-consul in Tegucigalpa, Honduras from 1990
1992.
Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Pyatt worked with the
Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank that brings together
leading citizens of the Americas.
Pyatt grew up in La Jolla, California. He earned a
Master’s degree in International Relations from Yale and a B.A. in Political
Science from the University of California, Irvine. He is married to Mary Pyatt, with whom he has two
children, William and Claire.
Pyatt will replace Tefft , who was approved by the U.S. Senate on Nov.
20, 2009 after serving as ambassador to Georgia from 2005 to 2009.
Kyiv Post staff writer Chris Miller
can be reached at [email protected].
