Strategic Advisory | Crisis Management
Ambassador Kenneth Merten
Managing Director
Washington, D.C.
Ambassador Kenneth Merten is a Career Minister in the U.S. Department of State and a three-time U.S. Ambassador, most recently to the Republic of Bulgaria. From January 2019 to January 2021, he served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of the Director General of the Foreign Service, and from January 2021 to October 2021 he was the Acting Director General of the Foreign Service. He then served for six months as Chargé d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Haiti.
From January 2017 to November 2018, Merten was the Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, overseeing Canada, Haiti, Caribbean Affairs, and the Office of Policy, Planning and Coordination. He previously served as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Croatia from 2012 to August 2015, and as U.S. Ambassador to Haiti from 2009 to July 2012. He also served as Deputy Executive Secretary to Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice.
Merten received the 2011 Ryan C. Crocker Award for Outstanding Leadership in Expeditionary Diplomacy for his leadership following the 2010 Haiti earthquake. As Ambassador to Haiti, he directed the U.S. Government’s on-the-ground relief efforts, including the deployment of 8,000 U.S. military personnel, and oversaw the largest evacuation of American citizens since World War II.
His overseas assignments include the U.S. Embassy in Paris, the U.S. Mission to the European Union in Brussels, the U.S. Embassy in Bonn during German unification, and four tours at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In Washington, he has served twice in the State Department Operations Center, in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, on the Cuba Desk, and with the Special Advisors on Haiti from 1993 to 1994.
Merten holds a B.A. from Miami University in Ohio and a Master of Public Administration from American University in Washington, D.C. He also pursued studies at the Université d'Aix-Marseille in France and Karl Franzens Universitaet in Austria. In July 2012, he was decorated by Haiti’s President with the Grande Croix of Honor and Merit, becoming only the fourth foreign diplomat to receive this honor in more than 200 years of Haiti’s independence. In January 2018, he received the Shandling Humanitarian Award from Sean Penn and the relief organization CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort) for his work in Haiti.
