Directors General of the Foreign Service
NOTE TO READERS
Updates to the Principal Officers and Chiefs of Mission database are currently suspended. For information about the Department’s current and recent leadership, we recommend visiting the Department of State homepage’s Biographies of Senior Officials and List of U.S. Ambassadors.
Notice posted on January 12, 2024.
Last
updated March 14, 2024.
Congress created the position of Director General of the Foreign Service in the Foreign Service Act of 1946 (P.L. 79-726; 60 Stat. 1000). Between 1946 and 1980, the Secretary of State designated the Directors General, who held rank equivalent to an Assistant Secretary of State. The Director General became a Presidential appointee, subject to the advice and consent of the Senate, under the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (Oct 17, 1980; P.L. 96-465; 94 Stat. 2071). Since Nov 23, 1975, under a Departmental administrative action, they have concurrently held the title of Director of the Bureau of Personnel.
- Selden Chapin (1946–1947)
- Christian Magelssen Ravndal (1947–1949)
- Richard Porter Butrick (1949–1952)
- Gerald Augustin Drew (1952–1954)
- Joseph Charles Satterthwaite (1957–1958)
- Waldemar John Gallman (1958–1961)
- Tyler Thompson (1961–1964)
- Joseph Palmer II (1964–1966)
- John Milton Steeves (1966–1969)
- John Howard Burns (1969–1971)
- William O. Hall (1971–1973)
- Nathaniel Davis (1973–1975)
- Caroline Clendening Laise (1975–1977)
- Harry George Barnes Jr. (1977–1981)
- Joan Margaret Clark (1981–1983)
- Alfred Leroy Atherton Jr. (1983–1984)
- George Southall Vest (1985–1989)
- Edward Joseph Perkins (1989–1992)
- Genta Hawkins Holmes (1992–1995)
- Anthony Cecil Eden Quainton (1995–1997)
- Edward William Gnehm Jr. (1997–2000)
- Marc Isaiah Grossman (2000)
- Ruth A. Davis (2001–2003)
- W. Robert Pearson (2003–2006)
- George McDade Staples (2006–2007)
- Harry Keels Thomas Jr. (2007–2009)
- Nancy Jo Powell (2009–2012)
- Linda Thomas-Greenfield (2012–2013)
- Arnold A. Chacon (2014–2017)
- Carol Z. Perez (2019)
- Stephen Akard (Not commissioned; nomination of October 16, 2017 withdrawn by the president on March 20, 2018.)