Thunderbird Global Speaker Series: Ambassador Niels Marquardt '80
Thunderbird Emerging Markets Laboratories (TEM Lab) and TEMBA are proud to welcome Thunderbird graduate Ambassador Niels Marquardt '80, CEO, America Chamber of Commerce in Australia, Former US Ambassador to Madagascar, Cameroon, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Rwanda.)
Ambassador Marquardt will discuss his Thunderbird career in foreign service, with a special focus on his role during and after the 2009 coup d’etat in Madgascar, and the effects on the country to this day.
About Ambassador Marquardt
Niels Marquardt has been the CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia since 2013. This position builds on a U.S. State Department career spanning administrations from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama, and culminating in service as Ambassador to four African nations and as Consul General in Sydney.
Niels’ career highlights include managing fraught relations with Madagascar following the 2009 coup d’etat; leading a robust anti-corruption drive in Cameroon; steadying the Comoros after a brief civil war in 2008; advising Equatorial Guinea’s President on investing new-found hydrocarbons wealth in health and education; and protecting rare biodiversity everywhere he served. His seven years in Sydney have focused on strengthening America’s role as Australia’s leading foreign economic partner. Niels also spent years rebuilding the Foreign Service in senior human resources positions, and working in our embassies in Bangkok, Brazzaville, Paris, and Bonn. He also was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Rwanda. Niels speaks German, Thai, French, passable Spanish, and a few African languages.
A San Diego native, Niels’ international journey began at L&C with a German lit degree and a year in Munich. He also received Master’s Degrees from Thunderbird (where he met his wife Judi) and the National War College. He and Judi raised four wonderful daughters on five continents and now spend much of their time trying to get them all together in exotic locations. At some future date, they plan to return to Portland to live in their converted 1891 farmhouse near Multnomah Village.