David Bruce Wharton was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe in September 2012.

He joined the Africa Bureau in August 2009 as the Director of the Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs and became the Bureau’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy from July 2010 until August 2012. Prior to that, he served a two-year assignment as Deputy Coordinator of the State Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs. From 2003 to 2006 he was the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala.

Bruce Wharton entered the Foreign Service in 1985 and has served at U.S. Embassies in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. In Africa, he has also had temporary duty in Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana. From 1992 to 1995 he worked in Washington, DC on Andean Affairs and Western Hemisphere policy issues. He has received Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards from the Department of State and the U.S. Information Agency, and was the 2011 recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Public Diplomacy.

Mr. Wharton was born in Basel, Switzerland, and enjoyed a cross-cultural childhood with time spent in both Europe and Texas. He is a graduate of the University of Texas in Austin and speaks Spanish and German.

Contact Information

United States Embassy
172 Herbert Chitepo Avenue
Harare, Zimbabwe

Phone: 263-4-250593/4
Fax: 263- 4-796488

Email: consularharare@state.gov
Website: http://harare.usembassy.gov/