This biography is no longer current; at present, no other official U.S. Department of State biographical information is available.
A career Foreign Service Officer, Paul Simons presented his credentials as U.S. Ambassador to Chile in January 2008. Before being posted to Chile, Ambassador Simons served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Energy and Sanctions, where he led energy diplomacy initiatives worldwide and served on the Governing Board of the International Energy Agency. Previously, as Acting Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, he managed more than $1 billion in annual resources supporting U.S. drug control and police training programs.
Ambassador Simons has also served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Israel. For most of the previous decade he was involved in Arab/Israeli peace negotiations. Earlier in his career, he served at U.S. Embassies in Ecuador, Malawi and Colombia, as a speechwriter at the State Department, and as international economist at the Treasury Department. Before joining the Foreign Service, Ambassador Simons worked in international corporate lending at a New York based commercial bank.
Ambassador Simons holds a B.A. degree from Yale University and an M.B.A. in Finance from New York University. A member of the President's Council on International Activities at Yale University, he speaks Spanish and French.
