Ralph Samuel Thomas is a Jamaican banker, academic and diplomat who served as Jamaican ambassador to China, United States [1] and the Permanent Representative of Jamaica to the Organization of American States (OAS). He previously served in several Jamaican government agencies including Urban Development Corporation and Jamaica Financial Services Authority as Director. Thomas ran for a North Central Clarendon seat in the Jamaican parliament on the ticket of the People's National Party in 2007 but lost. [2] [ failed verification ]
Thomas attended Glenmuir High School and obtained his first degree in arts (General) Degree from the University of the West Indies in 1976. In 1990, he earned a master's degree in Business Administration at the Columbia University and received Financial Analysis and Policy training from the International Monetary Fund Institute. [2] [ failed verification ]
Thomas began his career in banking with the Bank of New York in 1981 and rose to the position of vice president and regional manager in 2003. He left the bank in 2004 and started working as an independent consultant in the banking industry. In 2010, he became a senior teaching fellow in the Mona School of Business and Management and later held directorship positions at the National Insurance Fund Board, Jamaica Financial Services Authority, Urban Development Corporation, and the Mental Health Association of Westchester in New York and was chairman of the Micro Investment Development Agency, a micro credit lending agency. [2] [ failed verification ]
In 2013, he was appointed Jamaican ambassador to China with residence in Beijing. He served concurrently as Jamaican non-resident ambassador to Vietnam and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. During this period, he also served as Jamaican non-resident high commissioner to Bangladesh, Pakistan and Singapore. On 8 September 2015, Thomas was redeployed from China to the United States as ambassador and permanent representative to the Organization of American States replacing Stephen Vasciannie. [3] [4]
Roger Francisco Noriega is an American diplomat who served as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs in the George W. Bush administration He is a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Dr. Paulette A. Bethel is a Bahamian diplomat from the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. She started her professional career in 1980 in the international field as Assistant Social Affairs Officer in the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs (CSDHA) in Vienna, Austria. She then joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Bahamas) and served in diplomatic posts for long years for her country. She was a Special Adviser to the Office of the President of the Seventieth session of the United Nations General Assembly. She was previously the Permanent Representative of the Bahamas to the United Nations from 4 March 2003 to 31 March 2013. She was the first female Ambassador of The Bahamas to the United Nations. She had also worked as Director of the Department of Fellowships at the Organization of American States (OAS); the first such position for a national of Bahamas.
Sir Courtney Newlands McLaurin Blackman, KA was a Barbadian economist, international business consultant, and diplomat. He served as the first Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados from 1972 to 1987. At the time of his appointment, he was the youngest central bank governor in the world.
Ransford Smith, CD, is a senior public servant from Jamaica. He was the Deputy Secretary-General for Economic Affairs and Development of the Commonwealth of Nations from 2006 to 2013.
Odeen Ishmael was a career Guyanese diplomat.
Claude Heller Rouassant was Mexico's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York City from 2007 to 2011, during which time he served as President of the Security Council on two occasions. He has also served Mexico's ambassador to France, Cuba, Austria and Switzerland. He was also ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, and to the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, D.C.
Mari Carmen Aponte is an American attorney and diplomat who has served as the United States Ambassador to Panama in the Biden administration since November 2022. She previously served as acting assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs on May 5, 2016. She also served as U.S. ambassador to El Salvador from August 2010 until December 2011 and again from June 14, 2012, until December 2015. Before that she was serving as a member of the board of directors of Oriental Group, a major financial and banking services enterprise in Puerto Rico. President Obama also nominated her as the United States' permanent representative to the Organization of American States, but the Senate had not acted upon that nomination upon adjournment in December 2014.
Richard T. McCormack is an American government official and diplomat. He has served nearly five decades advising policymakers on foreign affairs and global economic developments. He is currently a senior advisor for CSIS in Washington, D.C.
Guillermo John Roque Fernández de Soto Valderrama is a Colombian lawyer and diplomat, who has served as Secretary General of the Andean Community of Nations, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Ambassador of Colombia to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and designated-Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotenciary, Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations in New York.
African-Americans in foreign policy in the United States catalogs distinguished African Americans who have and continue to contribute to international development, diplomacy, and defense through their work with the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Information Agency, and the U.S. Congress, and other notable agencies and non-governmental organizations. The creators acknowledge the presence of the interagency contributions to the foreign affairs realm, and welcome additional content to showcase the achievements of African-Americans in other relevant USG agencies.
Sir Ronald Michael Sanders is an Antiguan Barbudan diplomat, academic former broadcast-journalist, and the current Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States and to the Organization of American States since 2015. He is also the non-resident High Commissioner to Canada since 2017. He served twice as Antigua's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom as well as ambassador and negotiator to the World Trade Organization (WTO) (1997–2004). He was a member and Rapporteur of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group (2010–2011) that produced a seminal report entitled, A Commonwealth of the People: Time for Urgent Reform that laid out a plan of action to make the Commonwealth effective and relevant. He was Antigua and Barbuda's nominee to be secretary general of the Commonwealth at the election held at the 2015 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. He is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, and is a speaker at conventions and conferences on global financial services issues and on Caribbean states in the political-economy of the Americas and the Commonwealth.
Nestor Mendez is a Belizean diplomat and politician. He is currently the Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States.
Richard L. Bernal, OJ was a Jamaican economist and diplomat. Bernal served as the Jamaican Ambassador to the United States from 1991 to 2001, simultaneously holding the post of Permanent Representative of Jamaica to the Organization of American States. As of March 2016, Bernal held the post of Pro Vice-Chancellor for Global Affairs at the University of the West Indies (UWI). Bernal was a Member of the Order of Jamaica. In 2018, he was made a Professor of Practice (PoP) in international economic policy at The UWI. Bernal was a Member of the Leadership Council of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He was also a member of the Board of Directors at Laspau, Harvard University.
Samuel Reinaldo Moncada Acosta is a Venezuelan politician and diplomat currently serving as Permanent Representative of Venezuela to the United Nations since 2017 and formerly served as Alternate Representative of Venezuela to the Organization of American States from 2017 to 2019. He was Venezuela's deputy foreign minister until June 2017, when he succeeded Delcy Rodriguez as Venezuela's Foreign Minister. On August 2, 2017, following the 2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election, President Nicolás Maduro appointed former Vice President Jorge Arreaza to replace Moncada as the new Foreign Affairs Minister.
Diego Pary Rodríguez is a Bolivian Quechua indigenous leader, educator, politician and diplomat. He served as Advisor to the Bolivian Constituent Assembly of 2006-07 and as Vice Minister of Higher Education. From 2011 to 2018 he served as Ambassador of Bolivia to the Organization of American States (OAS) and Concurrent Ambassador of Bolivia to Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Dominica and The Bahamas. He was Foreign Minister of Bolivia from 2018 until 12 November 2019, following the resignation of Evo Morales.
Gillian Bristol is a diplomat from Grenada, serving as ambassador to the United States and Mexico for the small island nation. She was the first Caribbean Islander to be president of the OAS Staff Association.
Shorna-Kay Richards is a Jamaican career diplomat currently serving as Jamaica ambassador to Japan. She previously served as the Director of the Bilateral Relations in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Permanent Representative of Jamaica to the United Nations in New York and served as Vice-Chair of the UN Disarmament Commission.
Wayne McCook is a Jamaican lawyer and career diplomat who was Jamaican first resident ambassador to China and served as Jamaica's permanent representative to the United Nations offices in Geneva, Switzerland and Rome, Italy. After four decades of diplomatic career, McCook retired from public service to a private career where he served as senior adviser to the Director General of World Trade Organization (WTO).
Gordon Shirley OJ is a Jamaican academic and diplomat who served as Jamaican ambassador to the United States. He was a Pro Vice Chancellor and Principal of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and Executive Chairman of the Jamaica Public Service Limited.