Richard McCormack

Where and when

Richard T. McCormack currently awaits U.S. Senate confirmation as undersecretary of state for economic and agricultural affairs.

Prior to his recent nomination by President Bush, he served as ambassador to the Organization of American States since 1985. McCormack was assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs from 1982 through 1985. Early in the Reagan Administration, he served as a consultant to the Department of State on international economic matters.

McCormack has been a staff member in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, including as a legislative assistant to Sen. Jessee Helms, and was on the staff of the American Enterprise Institute as a consultant to the president. He also has served as deputy to the assistant secretary of the treasury for international economic affairs. Following his tenure at the U.S. Treasury, he was a trade negotiations consultant to the White House during the Ford Administration.

McCormack began his career as a staff member with the Peace Corps and has been a consultant to a number of other government entities, including the White House Council on International Economic Policy in 1972, as well as private corporations.

He was director of operations research with Philco Ford Corporation in South Vietnam in 1968; a foreign affairs staff member of the 1968 Republican Presidential Campaign organization; and a campaign assistant in the 1967 Philadelphia mayoral race.

Also, he was a candidate for the U.S. Congress in the 1972 and 1974 Republican primary elections for Pennsylvania’s 23rd District.

Fluent in Spanish and German, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Georgetown University and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.

McCormack and his wife, Karen, have a son, Justin, and a daughter, Charlotte.