Walter H. Kansteiner III (born November 14, 1955) is an American businessman and politician who served as the

United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs The Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs is the head of the Bureau of African Affairs, within the United States Department of State, who guides operation of the U.S. diplomatic establishment in the countries of sub-Saharan Afric ...

from June 2001 until November 2003.

Career

In the late 1980s, Kansteiner was appointed Director of Economic Studies at the Institute on Religion and Democracy. In May 1989, Kansteiner joined the

State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

's policy planning staff as Africa director. He served in this position until June 1991, when he moved to the

National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a na ...

as director for African affairs. In April 1992, he was appointed as the National Security Council Deputy Press Secretary. As a founding principal of

The Scowcroft Group {{More citations needed, date=November 2018 The Scowcroft Group is an international business advisory firm managed by Brent Scowcroft, former National Security Advisor to U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Gerald Ford. The company claims region ...

, Kansteiner has advised corporations on mergers, acquisitions and privatizations throughout Africa in the telecommunications, forestry, mining, financial services, health care, and aviation industries. Kansteiner advised the buy side on the $1.3 billion privatization of

Telkom South Africa Telkom SA SOC Limited is a South African wireline and wireless telecommunications provider, operating in more than 38 countries across the African continent. Telkom is majority state-owned (55.3%) with the South African government owning 40.5% ...

, to date the largest privatization in Africa. He also was executive vice president of W. H. Kansteiner, Inc. in Chicago, an agricultural commodity trading and manufacturing company specializing in tropical commodities in the developing world. In June 2001 he was appointed as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. In 2003, he left the post, citing family reasons. He was appointed in April 2004 as independent non-executive director to the board of Spescom Limited. Kansteiner is on the board of directors of the Corporate Council on Africa,

African Development Foundation The United States African Development Foundation (USADF) is an independent United States government agency that provides grants of up to $250,000 for operational assistance, enterprise expansion and market linkage to early stage agriculture, e ...

, and

Sierra Rutile Sierra Rutile Limited (Titanium Resources Group Ltd. until 2011) is a mining company with headquarters based in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The company currently has operating mines for Rutile, ilmenite, zircon, and titanium dioxide minerals in South a ...

Family

Kansteiner is married; has two children, Beverly and Chalker; and resides in Middleburg, Virginia. His wife, Frances Kansteiner, is from Alabama. Her father,

William Houston Blount William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...

, ran Vulcan Materials for many years, and his brother, Winton M. "Red" Blount, was Postmaster General in

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

's cabinet. Red and his brother, Houston, founded Blount Brothers Construction, a large construction and manufacturing firm formerly headquartered in Montgomery. It was later renamed Blount International and moved to Portland, Oregon. Frances Kansteiner was an officer, director, and advisor to the

WILD Foundation The WILD Foundation is a non-profit organization, belonging to category 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, that was founded in 1974 by South Africans Ian Player (conservationist) anMagqubu Ntombela(Zulu chief, friend, and colleague), ...

. She also on the board of Stratford Hall.

Memberships and affiliations

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...

, Strategic Minerals Task Force * Senior Associate of

The Forum for International Policy ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in En ...

* Member of

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...

* Senior Associate of the

Center for Strategic and International Studies The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. CSIS was founded as the Center for Strategic and International Studies of Georgetown University in 1962. The center conducts polic ...

* Steering Committee and International Advisory Board Member of New Global Economy Project * Board member of

WildlifeDirect WildlifeDirect is a Kenya and US registered charitable organisation founded by African conservationist Richard Leakey. Its main office is located in Nairobi, Kenya. WildlifeDirect was established in 2006 to provide support to conservationists ...

References

External links

US Department of State: Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter H. Kansteiner to Travel to Angola and Nigeria

Excerpts at Special Briefing - leaves U.S. State Dept
by Walter H. Kansteiner III, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs,

United States 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 n ...

October 28, 2003, Washington, D.C.
Rasmusen's Politics Weblog

Cynthia McKinney, Member of Congress
Bio - Walter Kansteiner
I {{DEFAULTSORT:Kansteiner, Walter H. III American University alumni Assistant Secretaries of State for African Affairs Living people 1955 births Virginia Republicans People from Middleburg, Virginia