Raymond F. Burghardt Appointed As Director of the Taipei Office of the American Institute in Taiwan

PR9907E | Date: 1999-02-12

The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) is pleased to announce the selection of Raymond F. Burghardt as the new Director of its Taipei Office, replacing Mr. Darryl N. Johnson. Mr. Burghardt will assume his new duties in the summer of 1999 after consultations and home leave in the United States.

Mr. Burghardt, currently a Minister-Counselor in the United States Foreign Service, is the American Consul General in Shanghai, a position he has held since 1997. He previously served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassies in Manila (1993-96) and Seoul (1990-93). In Seoul, he was the Charge d'Affaires ad interim in 1993 during the first six months of the Clinton Administration.

Mr. Burghardt's previous positions included an assignment on the National Security Council staff as Special Assistant to President Reagan and Senior Director of Latin American Affairs. His earlier Latin American experience included service in the U.S. embassies in Honduras and Guatemala. In addition, he has served as Political Counselor in Beijing (1987-89), as political officer in Hong Kong and Saigon and as Deputy Director of the State Department's Office of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia Affairs.

Mr. Burghardt was born in New York City in 1945 and grew up in the New York metropolitan area. He received a B.A. from Columbia College in 1967 and did graduate work at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia, South America before joining the Foreign Service in 1969.

Mr. Burghardt is married to the former Susan Day. They have two daughters. He speaks Mandarin Chinese, which he studied in Taichung, as well as Spanish, Vietnamese and French.

AIT Chairman and Managing Director Richard Bush had this comment on Mr. Burghardt's appointment: "I have known Ray Burghardt for a number of years, and have always been impressed by his intelligence, his seriousness, and his dedication to duty. This appointment represents a further progression in an outstanding career. He will be an able successor to Darryl Johnson, and I look forward to working together with him in building U.S.-Taiwan relations."

The Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 designated the American Institute in Taiwan as the instrumentality to conduct the commercial, cultural and other relations between the people of the United States and the people on Taiwan.