Philip G. Laidlaw was appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Legislative Affairs in September, 2022. He is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister Counselor, having joined the Department of State in 1992.
Most recently, he served as Senior POLAD (Foreign Policy Advisor) at U.S. Special Operations Command in Tampa from 2020 to 2022. He was Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Panama in 2020. He served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá from 2016 to 2019. Prior to that, he managed regional assistance budgets and strategic planning and coordinated global and multilateral issues in the Americas as director of the Office of Policy Planning and Coordination in the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. From 2013 to 2014 he was the Chargé d’Affaires at Embassy Caracas after serving as Deputy Director of the Office of Andean Affairs. His other overseas assignments include Tirana, Sarajevo, Madrid, La Paz, and San Salvador.
Mr. Laidlaw earned his Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Economics at Wake Forest University in 1989 and received a Master’s degree in National Security Strategy from the National War College in 2011.