MARK L. ASQUINO

MARK L. ASQUINO, RECENTLY-RETIRED U.S. CAREER DIPLOMAT. He is a career Foreign Service officer with the rank of Minister Counselor. He retired from the U.S. Department of State in November 2015. Ambassador Asquino’s three decades plus career included postings in Latin America, Europe, Central Asia and Africa. During 2012-2015, he served as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Equatorial Guinea. Upon completing his assignment there, the Government of Equatorial Guinea awarded him the country’s highest decoration, “The Grand Cross of the Order of Independence.”

In the Spring of 2016, the U.S. Department of State asked that he return to government service from retirement to take a short-term assignment as Acting Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Port Louis, Mauritius. During his June-August 2016 tour there, he led the embassy on a range of challenging political, economic and environmental issues in both Mauritius and the Seychelles. Ambassador Asquino previously served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Sudan and in Kazakhstan. In Washington, he was Chief of Staff in the Office of the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights at the U.S. Department of State. 

From 2010-2011, he had an academic year detail from the Department of State as the Senior Public Diplomacy Fellow at George Washington University. Earlier in his career, Ambassador Asquino was Deputy Coordinator in the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization at the Department of State and Director of the U.S. Cultural Center in Madrid. The Ambassador is fluent in Spanish and has a working knowledge of French, Russian and Romanian. Prior to entering the Foreign Service, Ambassador Asquino spent a year (1975-76) as the Fulbright Lecturer in American Studies at the University of Oviedo, Asturias, Spain. The Ambassador earned a Ph.D. in American Civilization from Brown University, where he also did his undergraduate studies. He is married to Jane S. Asquino.