ARTURO SARUKHAN

Former Ambassador of Mexico to the U.S (2007 - 2013)



 

Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan, the youngest and longest-serving Mexican Ambassador in Washington in modern times, has served as a career diplomat in the Mexican Foreign Service for over 20 years.

Grandson and son of Armenian and Catalan conflict refugees, Arturo Sarukhan served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs in 1991, responsible for several Latin American regional coordination mechanisms including the Rio Group, the G-3 and the Ibero-American Summit, and as Mexico's permanent representative to the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean.

He was posted in 1993 as Chief of Staff to the Ambassador of Mexico at the outset of negotiations with the U.S Congress over the North American Free Trade Agreement NAFTA, appointed in 1995 as head of the Counternarcotics Office, designated in 2000 by the Foreign Secretary Chief of Policy Planning at the Foreign Ministry, and appointed in 2003 by the President Consul General of Mexico in New York City.

In 2006, after requesting a leave of absence, Arturo Sarukhan joined the presidential campaign of Mexico's Felipe Calderón as Foreign Policy Advisor and International Spokesperson, later becoming Coordinator of the Foreign Policy Transition Team for then President-elect Calderón.

In February 2007, after Senate confirmation, he was appointed Ambassador of Mexico in the U.S, the youngest and longest-serving Mexican Ambassador in Washington in modern times, representing his country during the last two years of the Bush Administration and the first Obama Administration.

Ambassador Sarukhan has been a lecturer at several academic institutions, including the National Defense College, the Center for Advanced Naval Studies and the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico, as well as the Inter-American Defense College and the National Defense University in the U.S, having published numerous articles and essays on foreign policy issues.

He has been a member of several organizations, including the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations, the Foreign Policy Association in New York, the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, and most recently the Transatlantic Task Force on Latin America of the Atlantic Council.

During his tenure, Ambassador Sarukhan also served as Dean of the Group of Latin American Ambassadors, Vice-chairman and Chairman of the Ambassadors advisory board of the Executive Council on Diplomacy, and ex oficio member of the U.S-Mexico Foundation.

He currently serves on the board of directors of the Americas Society and the Inter-American Dialogue, and as member of the advisory board of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Annenberg-Dreier Commission at Sunnylands, and the Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Latin American Law at the University of Texas, Austin.

He is also Chairman of Global Solutions, a global strategic advisory and risk assessment firm, Distinguished Associate at the Brookings Institution, and Distinguished Visiting Professor at USC Center on Public Diplomacy.

Ambassador Sarukhan has received multiple awards for his diplomatic achievements, including recognitions by the governments of Sweden and Spain, the annual National Democratic Institute Award for his contribution to strengthening relations between U.S and Mexico, and the annual Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute Award for his dedication to the U.S Hispanic community.

He has also received the Distinguished Diplomatic Service Award of the World Affairs Council at Washington, the VIDA Award of the National Alliance of Hispanic Health, the Excellence in Diplomacy Award of B'nai B'rith International, and the Gesher Award of the American Jewish Committee. In 2010 he was included in Monocle magazine's "global leaders" list, and for six years in a row has been included in Líderes Mexicanos magazine's "most influential leaders in Mexico" list.

Arturo Sarukhan holds a master's degree in American Foreign Policy from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, where he was a Fulbright Scholar and Ford Foundation Fellow. He is a digital diplomacy pioneer, being the first Ambassador accredited to use Twitter in an official capacity.

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