Press Release
U.S. Agency for International Development
Washington, DC
April 06, 2004

New USAID Director for Middle Eastern Public Diplomacy

Washington, DC - The Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Andrew S. Natsios has appointed Walid Maalouf as director of Public Diplomacy for Middle Eastern and Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) Affairs within USAID's Bureau of Legislative and Public Affairs.

Mr. Maalouf served at the United States Mission to the United Nations (U.N.) in New York since September 2003 as the Alternate Representative of the United States to the U.N. 58 th General Assembly. He was an integral member of the Middle East team at the Mission and the first U.S. representative to deliver a speech at the U.N. in Arabic.

Ambassador John D. Negroponte, the U.S. Permanent Representative to the U. N. said: "We commend Mr. Maalouf's energy, patience, and interest in advancing the President's agenda while representing America to delegates from other countries with warmth and grace."

Prior to these two presidential appointments Mr. Maalouf was an experienced international banker in the greater Washington D.C. area for fourteen years and was active in the international community. He is a Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and a member of the Consular Corps of Washington, D.C., the American Task Force for Lebanon and the U.S. - Bahraini Friendship Society. He is also member of the Federal City Club and the John Carroll Society.

USAID's Office of Public Diplomacy helps to coordinate and infuse the development and humanitarian message of USAID to the U.S. government, the American public and the Arab world.