Earl Anthony Wayne

Ambassador Earl Anthony Wayne

Earl Anthony "Tony" Wayne presented his credentials as Ambassador to Argentina to Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana on November 6, 2006.

A career diplomat since 1975, Ambassador Wayne served as Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs (EB) from June 2000 until June 2006.  In EB, he oversaw work on post-conflict economic assistance, economic sanctions, international debt, development and economic reform policies, combating the financing of terrorism, international energy policy, trade, intellectual property and investment policies, international telecommunications policy, international transportation policies, support for U.S. businesses overseas, and efforts to end trade in "conflict diamonds".

As Assistant Secretary, Ambassador Wayne led EB’s work on: 

• organizing major international donor and reconstruction conferences;  
• placing terrorists and their financiers under UN sanctions and building international coalitions to staunch the flow of money to terrorists;
• negotiating debt relief and economic reform packages for partner countries; 
• supporting U.S. companies in international commerce and investment disputes as well as trade negotiations; 
• negotiating "open skies" and other international agreements benefiting the U.S. transportation, high-tech and communications industries;
• helping to formulate U.S. development policy, including the creation of the Millennium Challenge Corporation;
• coordination of  reconstruction assistance and pledges to countries hit by the 2004 Asian tsunami and to Pakistan after the 2005 earthquake; 

He served as Interim Under Secretary for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs for six months in 2005.  During this time, he also served as U.S. Foreign Affairs "sous sherpa" helping to prepare the Gleneagles G8 Summit, in addition to his duties as Assistant Secretary.

For most of the 1990s, Ambassador Wayne worked on European affairs.  He was Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of European Affairs, 1997-2000, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe and Canada, 1996-97.  His portfolio included relations with the European Union, the OECD, the G-8, regional economic and global issues, Nazi restitution, bureau management, and U.S.-Canadian relations during 1996-97.  Ambassador Wayne was Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Mission to the European Union, 1993-96.  From 1991 to 1993, he was Director for Western European Affairs at the National Security Council. 

Ambassador Wayne was Director for Regional Affairs for the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Counter-Terrorism during 1989-91.  He took a leave of absence and worked as the national security correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, 1987-89.  He served as First Secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, 1984-87.

Ambassador Wayne was Special Assistant to Secretaries of State Haig and Shultz from 1981 to 1983.  During the tenure of Secretary Muskie, he served in the State Department's Executive Secretariat.  Earlier, he was posted as a political officer in Rabat, Morocco, and as a China analyst in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

Ambassador Wayne was promoted to "Career Minister" in 2002.  In 2008, he received the Paul Wellstone Anti-Slavery Ambassador of the Year Award for his work against trafficking in persons.  He has also received the Department of State’s Distinguished Honor Award and Presidential Distinguished and Meritorious Service Awards. 

Ambassador Wayne has a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University (1984), Masters degrees in Political Science from Princeton University (1975) and Stanford University (1973), and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley (1972).  Ambassador Wayne is married and has a daughter and a son.