Robert G. Houdek

Ambassador Houdek joined the NIC as National Intelligence Officer for Africa in October 1997 after serving as an adviser to the Chief of Staff of the Agency for International Development (AID) on the President's Greater Horn of Africa Initiative and as the AID negotiator on a Disaster Assistance Response Team in eastern Zaire.

Ambassador Houdek was a Foreign Service officer from 1962 to 1996. Among his many assignments, he served as the first US Ambassador to Eritrea (1993-96), Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (1991-93), Chief of Mission in the US Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (1988-91), Ambassador to Uganda (1985-88), Deputy Chief of Mission in the US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya (1989-84), and Deputy Director of the Office of West African Affairs. He also was on the White House staff from 1969 to 1971 as a Special Assistant to then National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger.

Ambassador Houdek received an M.A. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1962 and a B.A. from Beloit College in 1961. Ambassador Houdek's honors include several Presidential Service and State Department Superior Honor awards. He is a member of the African Studies Association, the Eritrean Studies Association, and the American Foreign Service Association, where he served on the Board of Directors.