Alexander Arvizu

Alexander A. Arvizu
United States Ambassador to Albania
In office November 10, 2010 – 2014
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	John L. Withers, II
Succeeded by	Donald Lu
Personal details
Born	1958 (age 58–59)
Alma mater	Georgetown University (BA)

Alexander A. Arvizu (born 1958) is an American diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Albania from July 1, 2010 to January 11, 2015.

Arvizu was born on U.S. Army base in Japan and is a first-generation American. His father is originally from Dolores Hidalgo, Mexico and mother was from Kyoto, Japan. Arvizu grew up in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where his family settled after return to the United States. In 1980, he graduated with a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University. He has studied several Asian languages such as Japanese, Korean, Thai and Khmer.

Arvizu joined the United States Foreign Service in 1981. He held various State Department positions overseas and had been domestically assigned to positions related to U.S. foreign policy in East Asia and the Pacific. While in Washington, D.C., he served as Deputy Director of the State Department's Office of Japanese Affairs and then Director for Asian Affairs in the United States National Security Council in the second Clinton Administration.

Among his overseas positions were Deputy Chief of Missions in US Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 2000-2003 and US Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand in 2004-2007. In addition to that, he served two tours in Seoul, South Korea and one tour in Osaka-Kobe, Japan. From 2003 through 2004, Ambassador Arvizu was a member of the 46th Senior Seminar, a leadership program for senior government officers.

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