Full Biography of Ambassador Phillip Carter III

Ambassador Phillip Carter III

Prior to his appointment as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire, Phillip Carter served as a Senior Advisor to the Africa Bureau and previously as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary from 2008 to 2010, as well as the Africa Bureau’s Acting Assistant Secretary during the transition between the Bush and Obama Administrations.  From 2007 to 2008, he was the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Guinea. Ambassador Carter has also served as the Director for West African Affairs and the Deputy Director in the Office for East African Affairs at the U.S. State Department.

Prior to that assignment, he was the Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) at the U.S. Embassy in Antananarivo, Madagascar and DCM in Libreville Gabon. Before his arrival in Gabon in 1997, he was an international financial economist in the State Department's Office of Monetary Affairs in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. During this period, he dealt with international debt and capital matters and served as the Department's point-person on International Monetary Fund issues with Africa.  From 1992-1994, he served as the Economic and Commercial Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Prior to Bangladesh, Amb. Carter was the Economic and Commercial Officer in Lilongwe, Malawi for three years. From 1987-1989, he worked in the Department's Office of Caribbean Affairs as a desk officer responsible for bilateral matters concerning the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and the Eastern Caribbean, as well as regional economic issues such as the Caribbean Basin Initiative. From 1982-1986, he served as the Deputy Principal Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Winnipeg, Canada and as vice consul at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.

Amb. Carter received a M.A.in International and Development Economics from Yale University and earned a B.A. in Economics and History from Drew University where he was a member of the International Economics Honor Society (Omicron Delta Epsilon). He is the recipient of the President’s Meritorious Service Award, Superior Honor Awards, The Franklin Award, and several individual and group Meritorious Honor Awards as well as honorific titles in the National Orders of Madagascar and Cote d’Ivoire. He speaks French and Spanish.  A member of the Senior Foreign Service, Amb. Carter holds the rank of Minister Counselor.  Married, he and his wife, Amanda Jane Carter, have two sons.