Gary A. Grappo was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on March 6, 2006. He is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service.
Following his posting as US ambassador to Oman, He served as Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at the US Embassy in Baghdad and then Envoy and Head of Mission of the UN Middle East Quartet under former British PM Tony Blair in Jerusalem.
From November of 2003 to November of 2005, Mr. Grappo was Deputy Chief of Mission and Minister Counselor of the United States Mission in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which includes the Embassy and Consulates General in Jeddah and Dhahran. Prior to his assignment to Riyadh, he served as Director of the Office of Regional and Economic Affairs in the Bureau of Near East Affairs of the Department of State in Washington, DC. During that assignment, he played a leading role in the establishment and implementation of the Middle East Partnership Initiative.
Mr. Grappo has received several Department awards, including three Superior Honor Awards--for his work on food relief and economic recovery during and after the fall of the Soviet Union, for his leadership role in the 1995 Amman Middle East North Africa Economic Summit, and for his work in the U.S. Government’s campaign against terrorism financing in the Middle East--as well as several group and individual Meritorious Honor Awards.
Mr. Grappo holds a BS in Mathematics from the U. S. Air Force Academy, MS in Geodesy and Survey Engineering from Purdue University, and an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Josef Korbel School for International Studies at the University of Denver and the former Senior Visiting Scholar at the Center for Global & Area Studies at the University of Wyoming.