The University of Texas at Austin

William R. “Bill” Stewart, is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, and most recently served as Minister Counselor for Economic and Political Affairs at the United States Embassy in Cairo from August 2006 to July 2009. As Minister Counselor, Bill was the senior economic and political advisor to the Ambassador, and a key member of her core Country Team. The U.S. Embassy in Cairo is one of the largest, busiest, and most important American diplomatic missions in the world, with nearly fifteen hundred employees supporting a multitude of U.S. government agencies, including the Departments of State and Defense, the FBI, DEA, Department of Homeland Security, and even the Library of Congress. Bill led twenty political and economic officers and a dozen local support staff whose portfolios included bilateral political and economic relations, internal political and economic issues, and regional concerns, including the Middle East Peace Process. Prior to this assignment, Bill served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Muscat, Oman from January 2004 to June 2006.

From June 2003 to December 2003, Bill served in Iraq under the auspices of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), first as a political advisor to the Regional Coordinator for CPA-North in Erbil, and then as CPA Governorate Coordinator for Salah ad Din Governorate, based in Tikrit. Previously, he served as Chief of the Political-Economic Section at the U.S. Embassy in Muscat from June 2000 to June 2003.

Bill joined the Foreign Service in 1984 and has also served in Stockholm, Muscat, Montreal, Sana'a, and Dubai. He was a John L. Weinberg fellow at Princeton University for the 1999-2000 academic year, earning a master’s degree in public policy. He speaks Swedish and Arabic.

Bill is married to the former Diane Polis, and they have six children.

Education

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Previous Positions