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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary


For Immediate Release January 31, 2000

PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES ROSS L. WILSON AS U.S. AMBASSADOR TO AZERBAIJAN

The President announced today his intent to nominate Ross L. Wilson to be Ambassador to the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Mr. Ross L. Wilson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and currently resides in Bethesda, Maryland. He is a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Counselor. He presently serves as Principal Deputy to the Ambassador-at-Large and Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for the Newly Independent States. A two-time veteran of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Mr. Wilson also served in Prague (then the capital of Czechoslovakia) and as Consul General in Melbourne, Australia. In Washington, he was Deputy Executive Secretary of the Department of State and Special Assistant to Under Secretary of State and Counselor of the Department Robert Zoellick, and he also held assignments in the Offices of Soviet Union and Egyptian Affairs. He joined the Foreign Service in l979.

Mr. Wilson received a Bachelors degree from the University of Minnesota and Masters degrees from Columbia University's School of International Affairs and the National War College. He speaks Russian and Czech. His wife, Marguerite Squire, is a Foreign Service Officer, and they have two sons, Blake and Grad.

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