REPORT FOR THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
SUBJECT: Ambassadorial Nomination: Certificate of Demonstrated Competence — Foreign Service Act, Section 304(a)(4)
POST: Mongolia
CANDIDATE: Richard Lee Buangan
Richard Lee Buangan is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor. He currently serves as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Global Public Affairs of the Department of State in Washington, D.C. Previously he served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and before that he was the Executive Assistant to the Secretary of State. Mr. Buangan also served as the Public Affairs Officer of the then-U.S. Consulate General, Jerusalem and before that as Managing Director for International Media in the Bureau of Public Affairs. His two decades of service as a career diplomat, coupled with his knowledge of the Indo-Pacific and East Asia region, and his demonstrated success in leadership positions in two State Department bureaus, makes him a well-qualified candidate to serve as Ambassador to Mongolia.
Among his other assignments, Mr. Buangan served for four years at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China as Deputy Press Attaché and then as Embassy Spokesperson. He also held positions as a Staff officer on the Secretariat Staff in the Executive Secretariat of the Department of State, as a Consular Officer in the U.S. Embassy, Paris, France and as a Political Officer and General Services Officer in the U.S. Embassy in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Mr. Buangan earned a B.A. Degree from Saint Edwards University, Austin, Texas. He is the recipient of multiple performance awards from the State Department. He speaks Mandarin Chinese, French, and Spanish.