Harry Keels Thomas Jr. (born June 3, 1956) is an American diplomat who served as the U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Zimbabwe.

Education

Thomas is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and earned his Master's of Science in Urban Planning at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. He also has an honorary doctorate from Loyola University Maryland, where he delivered the commencement address in May 2010.

Career

Thomas joined the Foreign Service in 1984. His early postings included service in the US embassies in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

;

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

; Kaduna,

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

; and

Lima Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. He also served as Executive Secretary of the United States Department of State, Director General of the U.S. Foreign Service, Director of the State Department Operations Center, and Special Assistant to the then- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Thomas served as United States Ambassador to Bangladesh (serving from 2003 to 2005) and Director General of the United States Foreign Service (serving from 2007 to 2009), Thomas was designated by US President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

on November 19, 2009, to replace Kristie Kenney as Ambassador to the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

—the first

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

to serve at that post. He was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

on March 19, 2010, and presented his credentials to Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on April 27, 2010. He was then nominated and confirmed as the United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe on October 22, 2015. He was sworn in on December 8, 2015. He returned to the United States from Zimbabwe on March 25, 2018, planning to retire from the Foreign Service.

Controversy

In September 2011, Thomas sparked outrage – while in post as Ambassador to the Philippines – by making the remark that "40% of male tourists to the Philippines go there for sex tourism", without publicly presenting evidence for this remark. He subsequently made a public apology to the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines.

Foreign languages

Thomas speaks English, Spanish,

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

, Tagalog, and Bengali.

Awards and honours

Foreign honours

PHI Order of Sikatuna 2003 Grand Cross BAR

Grand Cross ''(Datu)'' of the Order of Sikatuna (GrCS) (October 14, 2013)

References

External links

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US Department of State biography
, - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Harry K. Jr 1956 births Living people Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation alumni College of the Holy Cross alumni African-American diplomats Ambassadors of the United States to Bangladesh Ambassadors of the United States to the Philippines Ambassadors of the United States to Zimbabwe Directors general of the United States Foreign Service 21st-century African-American people 21st-century American diplomats 20th-century African-American people