John F. Tefft was confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine by the U.S. Senate on November 20 and sworn in on November 25, 2009.
He has been a career Foreign Service Officer for over thirty years. Before assuming his current position, Ambassador Tefft served as Ambassador to Georgia (since 2005), and prior to that, as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs and was responsible for U.S. relations with Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova.
From 2003-2004 Ambassador Tefft was the International Affairs Advisor at the National War College in Washington, D.C. Ambassador Tefft served as the United States Ambassador to Lithuania from 2000 to 2003. He was Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow from 1996 to 1999, and was Charge d’Affaires from November 1996 to September 1997. His other Foreign Service assignments include Jerusalem, Budapest and Rome.
Ambassador Tefft holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and a Master’s Degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Among his awards are the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award in 1992 and the DCM of the Year Award for his service in Moscow in 1999. He received Presidential Meritorious Service Awards in 2001 and 2005.
