New U.S. Ambassador to Ecuador trained in Bolivia and Afghanistan

No one can say that new U.S. ambassador to Ecuador, Todd Chapman, didn’t earn his posting.

A career Foreign Service officer nominated for the position on Oct. 5, 2015, Chapman has had assignments in Afghanistan, Mozambique and Saudi Arabia during his 25 years of service. If Chapman is confirmed, which is expected, it will be the first posting as an ambassador.

U..S. Ambassador to Ecuador Todd Chapman

Chapman was born in Houston. When he was 11, in 1974, his family moved to São Paulo, Brazil, where his father, Bob, worked as an electrical engineer. Chapman remained in Brazil through secondary school.

He returned to the United States to attend college at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Chapman earned a BA there in 1983 and began working as a commercial banker in New York and in Saudi Arabia before joining the Foreign Service in 1990.

His first overseas assignment was in Taiwan, beginning in 1991 as a consular officer. After two years there, he was sent to Maputo, Mozambique, as an economic/commercial officer until being brought back to Washington in 1995. He returned to Africa in 1997 to serve as energy officer in Abuja, Nigeria.

Chapman attended the Joint Military Intelligence College beginning in 1999 and earned an MS in strategic intelligence in 2000. His next assignment, beginning in 2001, was as an economic officer in San Juan, Costa Rica. In 2004, Chapman was made political/economic/commercial counselor at the embassy in La Paz, Bolivia.

He came home in 2006 to serve as executive assistant in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. He was sent back to Mozambique the following year, this time as Deputy Chief of Mission. He did a tour in Kabul, Afghanistan, as senior diplomatic coordinator for economic affairs, from 2010 to 2011, where he helped administer $4 billion in economic assistance.

In 2011, Chapman returned to Brazil as Deputy Chief of Mission at the embassy in Brasilia. He served there until 2014, when he returned to Washington in his current role as principal deputy assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs.

Chapman speaks Portuguese and Spanish. He and his wife, Janetta, have two sons, Josh and Jason.