President Obama announces Bruce Wharton as next Ambassador to Zimbabwe

ZimPAS

Bruce Wharton talks to Zimbabwean journalists at the 2011 Highway Africa Conference in Cape Town

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

May 11, 2012

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

• Thomas Hart Armbruster – Ambassador to the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Department of State
• David Bruce Wharton – Ambassador to the Republic of Zimbabwe, Department of State

The President also announced his intent to appoint the following individual to a key Administration post:

• William J. Shaw – Member, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom

President Obama said, “Our nation will be greatly served by the talent and expertise these individuals bring to their new roles.  I am grateful they have agreed to serve in this Administration, and I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead.”

David Bruce Wharton, Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of Zimbabwe, Department of State

David Bruce Wharton, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, is currently Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of African Affairs at the Department of State.  He joined the Bureau of African Affairs in 2009 as Director of the Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, after a two-year assignment as Deputy Coordinator of the Department of State’s Bureau of International Information Programs.  From 2006 to 2007, he served in the Department’s Bureau of Human Resources and from 2003 to 2006, he was Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala.  A member of the Foreign Service since 1985, Mr. Wharton’s additional overseas assignments include posts in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.  He received a B.A. from the University of Texas in Austin.

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