Home » Our People » Ambassador W. Robert Pearson (ret.)
Ambassador W. Robert Pearson (ret.)
Name: Ambassador W. Robert Pearson (ret.)
Position(s):
- Director General, U.S. Foreign Service
- U.S. Ambassador to Turkey
- Deputy Chief of Mission to U.S. Embassy France and to U.S. Mission NATO
Biography:
Ambassador W. Robert Pearson heads the International Division at the SPECTRUM Group. He has been an innovative diplomat, dynamic leader and crisis manager in domestic and foreign assignments at the top levels of the U.S. government for more than two decades. He completed a 30 year career in 2006 with the Department of State as Director General of the Foreign Service, responsible for State Department civilian and Foreign Service personnel worldwide. He was U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Turkey during 2000 to 2003, guiding U.S. relations during a period of economic crisis for Turkey, the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq. Prior to that, he had assignments as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Paris as well as the U.S. Mission to NATO in Brussels, Executive Secretary of the Department of State, Deputy Executive Secretary of the National Security Council, Deputy Assistant Secretary General of NATO and Chair of NATO's Political Committee, and a Political Officer in China. Before entering the Foreign Service, he served in the Judge Advocate General's Corps in the U.S. Navy.
Ambassador Pearson has a comprehensive grasp of Washington and foreign policy issues and is an experienced senior negotiator and strategist on key political, security, and economic issues in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. His recent initiative to provide new direction for the U.S. Foreign Service garnered two highest possible national awards for creativity. He created the first civilian crisis response, reconstruction and stabilization organization in the U.S. Government and successfully tested the program domestically and internationally. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and of the University of Virginia School of Law. Ambassador Pearson speaks French, Chinese and Turkish and is a member of the California Bar.
Areas of Expertise: