Philip Seth Goldberg (born August 1, 1956) is an American diplomat and government official who has served as

United States ambassador to South Korea The United States Ambassador to South Korea () is the chief diplomatic representative of the United States accredited to the Republic of Korea. The ambassador's official title is "Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States ...

since 2022. He served previously as ambassador to the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, Bolivia and Colombia and chief of the U.S. mission in UN-administered

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

during the

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

and

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

administrations. He has served in Washington as

assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research The Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research is the head of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) within the United States Department of State. Before 1986, the head of INR was the Director of the Bureau of Intelligenc ...

. In 2022, he was nominated by President Joe Biden to be the U.S. ambassador to South Korea and was confirmed on May 5, 2022 by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

through voice vote. From June 2009 until June 2010, he was Coordinator for Implementation of

UNSC Resolution 1874 United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874 was adopted unanimously by the United Nations Security Council on 12 June 2009.North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

. He has also been Charge d'affaires, a.i. at the U.S. embassies in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

and

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

during the Bush and

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

administrations, respectively. Goldberg holds the personal rank of

career ambassador Career ambassador is a personal rank of Foreign Service Officers within the United States Department of State Senior Foreign Service. The rank of career ambassador is awarded by nomination of the President and confirmation by the United States Se ...

, the highest in the U.S. Foreign Service.

Early life and education

Goldberg was born on August 1, 1956. A native of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

, Goldberg is a graduate of The Rivers School and

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...

. Before joining the Foreign Service, Goldberg worked as a liaison officer between the city government of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

and consular community.United States Department of State.
"Biography of Philip S. Goldberg"
September 22, 2006.

Department of State appointments

Goldberg served overseas as a consular and political officer at the U.S. embassy in Bogota, Colombia, and political-economic officer in

Pretoria, South Africa Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...

. From 1994 to 1996, Goldberg served as the State Department's Desk Officer for Bosnia and a special assistant to Ambassador

Richard Holbrooke Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke (April 24, 1941 – December 13, 2010) was an American diplomat and author. He was the only person to have held the position of Assistant Secretary of State for two different regions of the world (Asia from 1977 ...

. As special assistant to Ambassador Holbrooke, Goldberg was a member of the American negotiating team in the lead-up to the Dayton Peace Conference and Chief of Staff for the American Delegation at

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

. From 1996 to 1998, Goldberg served as Special Assistant to the

Deputy Secretary of State The deputy secretary of state of the United States is the principal deputy to the secretary of state. The current deputy secretary of state is Wendy Ruth Sherman, serving since April 2021 under secretary of state Antony Blinken. If the secretary ...

. From 1998 to 2000, he served as executive assistant to Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott. In 2001, Goldberg served as a senior member of the State Department team handling the transition from the Clinton to Bush administrations. In 2000, Goldberg returned on temporary duty to Colombia to serve as the first coordinator for the U.S. contribution to Plan Colombia. From January 2001 to June 2001, Goldberg served as acting deputy assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs. From 2001 to 2004 he served as charge d'affaires, a.i. and then deputy chief of mission in Chile. Us-ambassafor-philip-goldberg-jonha-richman

Us-ambassafor-philip-goldberg-jonha-richman

In September 2008, he was declared persona non grata and expelled from Bolivia, where he had served as U.S. ambassador. In 2018, Goldberg served as charge d'affaires, a.i. at the United States embassy in Cuba. He has received numerous honors for his work including Presidential Distinguished and Meritorious Rank awards, the State Department's Distinguished Honor Award, and the U.S. Intelligence Community's Silver Seal Medallion. On May 6, 2019, President

nominated Goldberg to be the

United States ambassador to Colombia The following is a list of ambassadors of the United States, or other chiefs of mission, to Colombia and its predecessor states. The title given by the United States State Department to this position is currently ''Ambassador Extraordinary and Mi ...

. On August 1, 2019, the Senate confirmed his nomination by

voice vote In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by responding vo ...

. He presented his credentials to President

Iván Duque Márquez Ivan () is a Slavic male given name, connected with the variant of the Greek name (English: John) from Hebrew meaning 'God is gracious'. It is associated worldwide with Slavic countries. The earliest person known to bear the name was Bulgari ...

on September 19, 2019.

United States ambassador to South Korea

On February 11, 2022, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Goldberg to be the next

. On February 14, 2022, his nomination was sent to the Senate. Hearings on his nomination were held before the

Senate Foreign Relations Committee The United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is a standing committee of the U.S. Senate charged with leading foreign-policy legislation and debate in the Senate. It is generally responsible for overseeing and funding foreign aid p ...

on April 7, 2022. The committee favorably reported his nomination to the Senate floor on May 4, 2022. He was confirmed by the entire Senate on May 5, 2022, via voice vote. Goldberg arrived in the country on July 10, 2022, and presented his credentials to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on July 12.

Personal life

Goldberg is fluent in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

References

External links