Richard Boly is a former career U.S. diplomat and former Director of the Office of eDiplomacy, an applied technology think tank for the

U.S. Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other ...

. Previously, he was a National Security Affairs Fellow at the

Hoover Institution The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; abbreviated as Hoover) is an American public policy think tank and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, an ...

at Stanford University, where he launched the Global Entrepreneurship Program. Representing the U.S. Department of State, he served in the U.S. Embassy, Rome, where he developed and ran a program to promote entrepreneurship in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Richard Boly has also worked at U.S. Embassies in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...

, and

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

. While working as the Embassy's economic and commercial attaché in Asuncion, he leveraged modest program funds to sponsor a seminar for local judges and prosecutors to demonstrate how Paraguayan copyright law could be applied to software piracy. In his monograph "Commercial Diplomacy and the National Interest" ( Business Council for International Understanding, 2004, 77–79) Harry W. Kopp details Boly's efforts to persuade Paraguayian judges and prosecutors to enforce

Intellectual Property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

Rights (IPR) in Paraguay. Boly persuaded Paraguayan Supreme Court judges and other law enforcement officials to address bribery and corruption. Richard Boly is the most junior diplomat to win the Cobb Award for commercial diplomacy. in 2012, he received th
Security and International Affairs Medal
one of the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals. Other professional accomplishments include an assignment as the first Presidential Management Fellow with the

Inter-American Foundation The Inter-American Foundation, or IAF, is an independent agency of the United States government that funds community-led development in Latin America and the Caribbean. It was created through the Foreign Assistance Act of 1969Inter-American Development Bank.

Entrepreneurship

A proponent of fostering global entrepreneurs as an element of U.S. foreign policy, Boly developed and managed a program, "Partnership for Growth", in Italy to promote entrepreneurship in Italy by expanding access to venture capital. the 1990s, Boly founded and ran a shrimp hatchery in coastal

. During service in the United States

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F ...

, Boly worked with local residents on micro-business projects.

Change Management

Large organizations coalease into risk-averse environments slow to address challenges. Government agencies typically follow a course of inaction born of suspicion for change and no requirement for accountability. Leading organizational culture change requires communication, champions and resources. Managing change that sticks involves developing a common team language, shared productivity expectations and may require acceptance of interim setbacks while trending to success. Managing a team of diverse and confident tech creators, as well as the requisite group of experienced bureaucrats, offered Boly the opportunity to apply egalitarian communication to a previously stove-piped, status-fixated information environment. By modeling change processes to staff and others, his management experiments offer a path to other government leaders in the digital era.

Social Media Advocate

Using social media for 21st century diplomacy carries a certain element of risk. "It's better to launch and learn and be a bit more entrepreneurial, without worrying that the stakes are too high," says Richard Boly, State's director of eDiplomacy. During interviews, Boly advances the notion of civil society, global open government and collaboration among U.S. government agencies. Boly leads the team charged with developing the technical tools and training expertise to enable the U.S. Department of State to use professional networking platforms, blogs, wikis and image sharing, to list just a few 21st century communications tools, effective and efficient government has an opportunity to thrive. Diplomacy, the method through which governments communicate officially, is well served by new media. In practice, changing federal government employee habits and mindsets from a "need to know, to a need to share" culture takes dedication and creativity. “it’s fundamental to what we do,” Boly says. “If you don’t collaborate and share internally, you’re never going to share externally." As Director of the U.S. State Department's Office of eDiplomacy, Boly promotes the practical advantages of using social media for collaboration as well as the underlying philosophy of government transparency through use of collaborative online platforms.

Education

Boly is a graduate of Stanford University and the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at

UCSD The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boly, Richard American diplomats Stanford University alumni University of California, San Diego alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people)

Entrepreneurship

Change Management

Social Media Advocate

Education

See also

References