Frank Wisner
Ambassador Frank Wisner serves as International Affairs
Advisor for Squire Patton Boggs. In addition to his
ambassadorship to 4 different countries, he has served
as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and as Under
Secretary of State for International Security Affairs.
Frank was senior Deputy Assistant Secretary for African
Affairs from 1982 to 1986, a time of intense diplomatic
engagement in Southern Africa.
After graduating from Princeton University in 1961, Frank
joined the State Department as a Foreign Service officer.
His first post was in Algiers immediately after it won
independence from France. He then went to Vietnam,
where he spent four years at the apex of the war.Frank
worked as a senior diplomat in Tunisia and Bangladesh
before returning to Washington as Director of Plans and
Management in the Bureau of Public Affairs. He joined the
President’s Interagency Task Force on Indochina, the entity
responsible for evacuating and settling nearly one million
refugees and served as its Deputy Director.
Later, as Director of the Office of Southern African Affairs,
Frank worked closely with Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger to launch negotiations with Zimbabwe and
Namibia.Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appointed
Frank as the nation’s special representative to the Kosovo
Status Talks in 2005 where he played a crucial role in
negotiating Kosovo’s independence.
Before joining Squire Patton Boggs, Frank served as Vice
Chairman of External Affairs for American International
Group.