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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release March 19, 1996

PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES AMBASSADOR TO NAMIBIA

The President today announced his intent to nominate George Ward Jr. of Virginia, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, as Ambassador to Namibia.

Ward has been principal deputy assistant secretary for International Organization Affairs since July of 1992, and he has served since May 1995 as acting assistant secretary. He entered the Foreign Service in 1969 and became consular officer in Hamburg in 1970. He then served in the Operations Center and on the Secretariat Staff. In 1974 he was assigned as the political officer in Genoa, transferring to Rome in the same function in 1976. He was executive assistant to the Ambassador in Rome from 1977 to 1979. After a year at Harvard, Ward transferred to the office of Systems Analysis, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.

Moving to the Bureau of European and Canadian Affairs in 1981, he was first special assistant for policy and then chief of the political section in the Office of European Security and Political Affairs. After an assignment in Bonn as a political officer from 1984 to 1985, Ward returned to the Office of European Security and Political Affairs as Deputy Director in 1985. He was a member of the 31st Senior Seminar from 1988 to 1989. In 1989, he was named deputy chief of mission in Bonn.

Ward was born on April 9, 1945 in Jamaica, N.Y. He holds a bachelor's from the University of Rochester and a master's in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Harvard University. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1965 to 1969 and in the Marine Reserve from 1969 to 1977. He speaks German and Italian. His awards include the Distinguished Honor Award, three Superior Honor Awards, two Presidential Meritorious Awards, five senior performance pay awards, the Navy Commendation Medal with Combat "V", the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, and the Combat Action Ribbon. He is a member of the American Foreign Service Association, Phi Beta Kappa. He is married to Peggy Elizabeth Ward and has one daughter.