The Washington Diplomat

Appointments, January 2002

Argentina
• Eduardo P. Amadeo became ambassador of Argentina to the United States in December. Prior to his current post, Ambassador Amadeo served as deputy chief of the Cabinet of Ministers and as spokesman to President Eduardo Duhalde. He also served as secretary for social development (1994-98) and secretary for the prevention of drug addiction and control of drug trafficking in 1998, implementing the first comprehensive statistical system for drug demand in the country. Ambassador Amadeo was elected to Congress as a representative for the province of Buenos Aires in 1991, where he became president of the Education Committee. In 1975, Ambassador Amadeo was appointed president of the National Institute for Industrial Technology, and in 1987, he became head of the Bank of the Province of Buenos Aires, the second largest bank in Argentina. Ambassador Amadeo maintains his private practice as an economist and consultant on institutional relations, mergers and acquisitions, and he has been director of Observatorio Social, a magazine on social problems facing Argentine decision makers, since 1996. Ambassador Amadeo has taught at the Latin American College on Social Sciences, the École Polytechnique at the University of Montreal, and the Catholic University in Buenos Aires, where he also received his economics degree in 1970. Ambassador Amadeo speaks English and French and is married with five children.

Burundi
• Antoine Ntamobwa became ambassador of Burundi to the United States on Dec. 9. Ambassador Ntamobwa previously served as the vice president and chief of cabinet of Burundi and as minister of external relations and cooperation (1999-2002). In addition, he has served in numerous ambassadorial posts, including ambassador to Japan (1989-92), ambassador to Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Saint-Siege, the Czech Republic and Poland with residence in Bonn (1992-93), and ambassador to Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti with residence in Addis Ababa (1995-97). From 1995 to 1997, Ambassador Ntamobwa was also Burundi’s permanent representative to the Organization of African Unity and Economic Commission for Africa. He began his career in the early 1980s serving in various posts at the University of Burundi. Ambassador Ntamobwa has studied at the University of Burundi, Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar University in Senegal, and the École Nationale Supérieure and Centre d’Études et Débats Internationaux in France. He speaks Kirundi, French and English, and is married with four children.

Dominican Republic
• Hugo Guiliani Cury became ambassador of the Dominican Republic to the United States on Sept. 25. Ambassador Guiliani Cury previously served as minister of industry and commerce and as a member of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers. While in the private sector, Ambassador Guiliani Cury was a partner with the consultant firm Guiliani Cury and Associates, and he participated in the board of directors of a private development bank and a Free Zone Industrial Park. He also produced a weekly television program and contributed to the newspaper Hoy as a columnist on economic topics. During his public service career, Ambassador Guiliani Cury served as board director of the state-owned Banco de Reservas de la Republica. He was also technical director of the state-owned Corporation of Enterprises, economic adviser for the Dominican Republican president, and minister of finance and governor of the central bank. In the mid-1980s, Ambassador Guiliani Cury was appointed chief negotiator for his nation’s agreements with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. In addition, he was a professor of business and economics at the University of Santo Domingo for 12 years and has written nine books on the subject of economics. Ambassador Guiliani Cury graduated from the University of Miami with a degree in economics and business administration, pursuing his postgraduate degree studies at the Latin America Economic Planning Institute of Chile and the Management Research Institute of Administrative Science in Holland.

Estonia
• Andres Kolk assumed the position of first secretary on Jan. 3, replacing Eerik Marmei, who after three years departed the post on Jan. 3. Kolk previously served in the Political Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Estonia.

France
• Jean-David Levitte became ambassador of France to the United States on Dec. 9. He previously served as France’s permanent representative to the United Nations (2000-02) and as a diplomatic adviser and "sherpa" to French President Jacques Chirac from 1995 to 2000. Ambassador Levitte joined the Foreign Ministry in 1970, serving posts in Hong Kong (1971) and Beijing (1972-74). From 1975 to 1981, he worked at the Office of the President, and in 1981, he was posted as a counselor at the French Permanent Mission to the United Nations. Returning to Paris in 1984, Ambassador Levitte became deputy director of the West Africa section of the Foreign Ministry and then deputy executive assistant to the foreign minister two years later. Ambassador Levitte has also held posts as the ambassador and permanent representative of France to the United Nations in Geneva (1988-90) and director of the Asia-South Pacific section and head of cultural, scientific and technical relations at the Foreign Ministry (1993-95). He holds a law degree and is a graduate of the Institute of Political Science and the National School of Oriental Languages where he studied Chinese and Indonesian. Ambassador Levitte is an officer of the Legion of Honor and is married with two children.

Iceland
• Helgi Ágústsson became ambassador of Iceland to the United States on Dec. 9. Ambassador Ágústsson previously served as ambassador to Denmark with concurrent accreditation to Lithuania, Turkey, Israel and Romania (1999-2002). He also held posts as the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1995-99), the deputy permanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1987-89), and ambassador to the United Kingdom with concurrent accreditation to Ireland, the Netherlands and Nigeria (1989-95). Ambassador Ágústsson joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1970, serving as first secretary at the Icelandic Embassy in London (1973-77) and counselor (1977-79). In 1979, he was appointed director of the Defense Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and commissioned as the Icelandic chairman of the bi-national U.S.-Icelandic Defense Council. Ambassador Ágústsson graduated from the Commercial College of Iceland in 1963 and the Faculty of Law at the University of Iceland in 1970. He is married with four children.

Ireland
• Noel Fahey became ambassador of Ireland to the United States on Sept. 25. Ambassador Fahey joined the Irish Foreign Service in 1974, serving in overseas assignments in New Delhi and Brussels. From 1986 to 1997, he served in the European Union Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, becoming head of the division in 1991. In 1998, Ambassador Fahey became ambassador to Germany, overseeing the transfer of the embassy from Bonn to Berlin. Ambassador Fahey was educated at Roscommon CBS, University College Dublin, and at the Institute of Public Administration. He is married with three children.

Nepal
• Krishna Chandra Aryal assumed the position of first secretary on Aug. 23, replacing Dipak Adhikary, who after a four-year tenure returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nepal. Aryal previously served as a desk officer in different divisions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

• Netra Bahadur Tandan assumed the position of third secretary on Nov. 9, replacing Jaya B. Rai, who departed the post on Nov. 16 and previously served as an administrative assistant in the Foreign Ministry and attaché at the Nepalese Embassy in Germany. Before this current appointment, Tandan served as a superintendent and administrative assistant at the Foreign Ministry, and as third secretary at the Nepalese Embassy in France.

Portugal
• Pedro Catarino became ambassador of Portugal to the United States on Dec. 9. Ambassador Catarino joined the Foreign Service in 1964 and has since served as ambassador to China (1997-2002), permanent representative of Portugal to the United Nations (1992-96), and president of the Inter-Ministerial Commission on Macau and head of the Portuguese delegation to the negotiations for a new Defense and Cooperation Agreement with the United States (1989-92). Ambassador Catarino has also held posts as the director of council operations and chairman of the Committee of Operations and Exercises at NATO (1983-89), consul-general in Hong Kong (1979-82), and defense counselor at the NATO delegation in Brussels (1974-79). He holds a law degree from the University of Lisbon and is married with two children.

Yugoslavia
• Ivan Vujacic became ambassador of Yugoslavia to the United States on Dec. 9. Ambassador Vujacic joined the Democratic Party in Yugoslavia at its founding convention in 1990, serving as the first president of the Board of Economic Advisers (1990-92), a member of the Executive Committee (1990-92), a member of Parliament (1992-96)—including whip from 1994 to 1996—president of the Local Committee of the Democratic Party of the Central Belgrade municipality (1995-2001), and president of the Political Council and a member of the Presidency of the Democratic Party (2000-02). In addition, Ambassador Vujacic is one of the founders of the G17 group of independent economists. He earned his doctorate in economics in 1989 from the University of Belgrade, where he also was a professor of economics. Ambassador Vujacic conducted research at the London School of Economics and Political Science and was a Fulbright scholar from 1983 to 1984 at the University of Michigan.