THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

                  PRESIDENT NAMES TIMBERLAKE FOSTER AS 
         U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF MAURITANIA

The President today announced his nomination of Timberlake Foster as a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Counselor, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.

Mr. Foster of California, joined the Foreign Service in January 1975. He served as Vice Consul in Osaka-Kobe from 1975-1979. He then was the Political/Labor Officer in Tokyo from 1980-1982. Following Greek language training, Mr. Foster served in Athens, Greece as the Political/Labor Officer from 1983-1986. From 1986-1987 he worked as the Political-Military Officer in the State Department's Office of Japanese Affairs and as Deputy Director of that office from 1987-1989. In 1989 he was assigned as Consul General to Casablanca, where he remained until 1992. He was Director of the Office of Philippine Affairs from 1992-1993 and a Member of the Senior Seminar from 1993-1994. He has been Deputy Chief of Mission in Nairobi since July 1994.

He graduated from the University of South Carolina magna cum laude in 1968. He enlisted in the Army in 1968 and, following Korean language training, served in the Republic of Korea until his discharge in 1971. He then pursued graduate work in Japanese studies as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley from 1972-1974. His foreign languages include Japanese, French, Greek and Korean. Mr. Foster is married to Pamela Biolley, an artist. They have one son, Noel.

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