Harry K. Thomas, Jr. is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service and served most recently as Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources. He previously served as a Special Assistant to the Secretary and Executive Secretary of the Department.
Thomas, who joined the Foreign Service in 1984, served as U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh from 2003 to 2005. He also served in the White House as the Director for South Asia at the National Security Council from 2001 to 2002. His other postings include: New Delhi, India; Harare, Zimbabwe; Kaduna, Nigeria; and Lima, Peru. He has served as Senior Watch Officer, Deputy Director, and Director of the State Department Operations Center; Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs; and Staff Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for African Affairs.
Thomas holds a bachelors degree from the College of the Holy Cross.
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If confirmed, Ambassador Thomas would succeed Kristie Kenney, probably our most visible and well-liked representative in Manila in recent years (She is a well known supporter of the Ateneo Blue Eagles' basketball team and has also appeared on ABS-CBN shows, including Wowowee and Umagang Kay Ganda taking part in the each show host's dance Boom Tarat Tarat and Papaya).
Ambassador Thomas’ predecessors to the US Mission in the Philippines also include diplomatic luminaries like John D. Negroponte, Stephen Warren Bosworth (currently Special Representative for North Korea policy), David D. Newsom, Henry A. Byroade, Francis Joseph Ricciardone, Jr. (currently deputy ambassador to the US Embassy in Kabul) and many more.
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