Thatcher Scharpf's term ended on December 5, 2020.
Norman Thatcher Scharpf is Deputy Executive Secretary in the Office of the Secretary of State since August 2018. Prior to that, he was Counselor for Management Affairs of the U.S. Tri-Missions (Bilateral Embassy to Austria, Mission to the UN and International Organizations in Vienna, and Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) in Vienna from 2015 to 2018. He was Deputy Chief of Mission of the American Embassy in Bratislava, Slovakia, from 2012 to 2015. He also served as Deputy Director of the Office of Specialized and Technical Agencies in the State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs. Other overseas assignments include Belgrade, Tallinn, Zagreb, Warsaw, and Sao Paulo.
Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Thatcher served as a Surface Warfare Officer in the U.S. Navy. His assignments included shipboard tours on the guided-missile destroyer USS Robison (DDG-12) and the aircraft carrier USS Ranger (CV-61) and staff assignments in Panama and Washington, DC. He is the recipient of the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal, and the Navy Achievement Medal.
Thatcher has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master’s in National Security Resource Strategy from the National Defense University. His foreign languages are Slovak, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Serbo-Croatian, Polish, and Estonian.