David Brown is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, and became Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Bangui on September 14, 2014. He had been serving as Senior Advisor for the Central African Republic since August 1, 2013 succeeding Ambassador Lawrence Wohlers. Mr. Brown was Diplomatic Advisor at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS) in Washington, D.C. from August 2011 to July 2013. His prior Africa experience includes serving as the Senior Advisor to the J-5 (Strategy, Plans, and Programs) Director of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) in Stuttgart (Germany); three times as Deputy Chief of Mission at U.S. Embassies in Cotonou (Benin), Nouakchott (Mauritania), and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso); and as Economic Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic of the Congo). Mr. Brown’s non-Africa overseas tours have been as Consul General in Chengdu (China), and Economic Officer in Beijing, Tokyo, and Moscow. He has also served in Washington as the Director of the Office of Environmental Policy; as Economic Officer in the Bureau of Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs (EEB) responsible for trade policy with developing countries, including Africa; and on the Canada Desk with responsibilities for economic, consular, and law enforcement issues.

Mr. Brown has won several State Department individual and group Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards, and received the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) Sinclaire Language Award for Chinese and Japanese.  His other foreign languages are French, Spanish, and Russian.

Mr. Brown is the author of four books on Africa:  “Hidden Dragon, Crouching Lion: How China’s Advance in Africa is Underestimated and Africa’s Potential Underappreciated” (2012), “The Challenge of Drug Trafficking to Democratic Governance and Human Security in West Africa” (2013), “AFRICOM at 5 Years: The Maturation of a New U.S. Combatant Command” (2013) and “Africa’s Booming Oil and Natural Gas Exploration and Production: National Security Implications for the United States and China” (2013).

Prior to joining the U.S. Department of State, Mr. Brown worked in Miami as Business Manager of the Latin American Bureau of CBS News.

Mr. Brown has a Bachelor of Arts in Government (Political Science) from Cornell University, where he graduated with honors. He also has two Masters of Business Administration (MBAs) from the University of Chicago (specialization in finance) and the University of Louvain, Belgium (majors in econometrics and international business).

He is married and has two sons.  He enjoys swimming, jogging, and tennis.

Contact Information

The United States Embassy in the Central African Republic
Avenue David Dacko
P.O. Box 924
Bangui
Central African Republic

Phone: (236) 2 161-0200
Fax: (236) 2 161-4494

Website: http://bangui.usembassy.gov/