Larry Edward André Jr. (born 1961) is a retired American diplomat and career member of the

Senior Foreign Service The Senior Foreign Service (SFS) comprises the top four ranks of the United States Foreign Service. These ranks were created by the Foreign Service Act of 1980 and Executive Order 12293 in order to provide the Foreign Service with senior grades ...

who had served as the

United States ambassador to Somalia The United States ambassador to Somalia is the most senior diplomatic representative of the United States federal government assigned to Somalia. From 2015 to 2018 the U.S. maintained a non-resident diplomatic mission in Nairobi for Somalia and ...

from February 2022 to May 2023. He previously served as the

United States ambassador to Djibouti This is a list of ambassadors from the United States to the Republic of Djibouti. The area on the Horn of Africa on which Djibouti is situated had been under French control since 1885 as part of the protectorate of French Somaliland. The area w ...

from 2018 to 2021, and as the United States ambassador to Mauritania from 2014 to 2017.

Early life and education

André earned a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ...

from

Thunderbird School of Global Management The Thunderbird School of Global Management (or simply Thunderbird) is a global leadership, management, and business school at Arizona State University, a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. It was founded in 1946 as an i ...

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

and a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

from

Claremont McKenna College Claremont McKenna College (CMC) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It has a curricular emphasis on government, economics, public affairs, finance, and internat ...

Career

André is a career member of the

, with the rank of Minister-Counselor. He served as the United States Chargé d’Affaires ad interim at U.S. Embassy in

Juba, South Sudan Juba is the capital and largest city of South Sudan. The city is situated on the White Nile and also serves as the capital of the Central Equatoria State. It is the most recently declared national capital and had a population of 525,953 in 20 ...

. He is a former ambassador to

Djibouti Djibouti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the east. The country has an area ...

and

Mauritania Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a sovereign country in Maghreb, Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to Mauritania–Western Sahara border, the north and northwest, ...

. He has served as Director of the Office of the Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, and as Deputy Executive Director in the State Department’s

Bureau of African Affairs The Bureau of African Affairs (AF) is part of the United States Department of State and is charged with advising the Secretary of State on matters of Sub-Saharan Africa. The bureau was established in 1958. It is headed by the Assistant Secretar ...

, and was the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Dar es Salaam (, ; from ) is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of the Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over 7 million people, Dar es Salaam is the largest city in East Africa by population and the ...

. André has served as a diplomat since 1990. He is a two-time Deputy Chief of Mission with appointments to nine American missions abroad, mostly in Africa. He has also held senior policy positions at the

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

U.S. ambassador to Somalia

On April 15, 2021, President

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

nominated André to be the next

. The

Senate Foreign Relations Committee The United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is a standing committee of the U.S. Senate charged with leading foreign-policy legislation and debate in the Senate. It is generally responsible for authorizing and overseeing foreign a ...

held hearings on his nomination on June 9, 2021. The committee reported him favorably to the Senate floor on June 24, 2021. On December 18, 2021, 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 ...

confirmed his nomination by

voice vote In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "by live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by respondin ...

. On January 29, 2022, he presented a copy of his credentials to Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdisaid Muse Ali. On February 7, 2022, he presented his credentials to then President

Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (, ; born March 11, 1962), also known as Farmaajo, is a Somali politician who served as president of Somalia from 2017 to 2022. He was Prime Minister of Somalia, prime minister of Somalia for six months, from Novembe ...

Awards and recognitions

He is the recipient of numerous

State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the 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 o ...

Awards, including the Director General Award for Reporting, and was recently recognized by the

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) is the presiding officer of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The chairman is the highest-ranking and most senior military officer in the United States Armed Forces Chairman: appointment; gra ...

with the Joint Distinguished Civilian Award.

Personal life

Andre speaks

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

References

External links

Biography at U.S. Department of State
{{DEFAULTSORT:Andre, Larry Jr. 1961 births Living people Obama administration personnel First Trump administration personnel Biden administration personnel Ambassadors of the United States to Mauritania Ambassadors of the United States to Djibouti Ambassadors of the United States to Somalia Claremont McKenna College alumni Thunderbird School of Global Management alumni United States Foreign Service personnel 21st-century American diplomats