Francis J. Ricciardone, Jr. was confirmed on July 29, 2005 by the U.S. Senate as U.S. Ambassador to Egypt.

Mr. Ricciardone previously served twice in Egypt – as chief of the Civilian Observer Unit of the Multinational Force and Observers in Egypt’s Sinai Desert (1989-1991) and as an Embassy Political Officer (1986-1989).

Ricciardone served most recently as Ambassador to the Republic of the Philippines and the Republic of Palau from February, 2002 until May, 2005. From 1999 until 2001, he had served as the Secretary of State’s Special Coordinator for the Transition of Iraq, assisting Iraqis working to rebuild the institutions of civil society and democracy in their country in anticipation of the eventual fall of the Iraqi dictatorship. In 2004, he led the U.S. Government’s organization of the new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, in preparation for the re-establishment of U.S.-Iraqi relations with the new transitional Government of Iraq that took office in June of that year.

Mr. Ricciardone was born in Boston and graduated from Malden Catholic High School. Upon graduation summa cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1973, he received a Fulbright Scholarship for teaching and study in Italy. He went to Iran as a teacher in 1976, traveling widely in Southwest Asia, Europe, and the Middle East until he entered the Foreign Service in 1978.

Mr. Ricciardone’s other Foreign Service assignments include two tours in Turkey, most recently (1995-1999) as Deputy Chief of Mission and Charge d’Affaires; and service in Amman and London. He served as Political Advisor to the U.S. and Turkish commanding generals of Operation Provide Comfort, based in Turkey and operating in Iraq. In Washington, Mr. Ricciardone has served in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the Near East Bureau, and in senior management positions under the Director General of the Foreign Service and Human Resources. He has won high awards for policy and program management and for political reporting.

His wife, Dr. Marie Ricciardone, is a molecular biologist who conducted research on "Bilharzia" at the US Naval Medical Research Unit in Cairo from 1986 to 1993. Their two grown daughters studied at Cairo American College.

Mr. Ricciardone speaks Arabic, Italian, Turkish, and French.

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