David Pearce

David Pearce is a U.S. Foreign Service Officer and specialist in the Middle East, who became U.S. Ambassador to tAlgeria in August 2008. His previous assignment was as a senior advisor to U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, where he was a planner of the "Surge" to improve Iraqi security.

Prior background

Prior to joining the U.S. Foreign Service in 1982, Ambassador Pearce worked for nearly a decade as a reporter and foreign correspondent. From 1973-79, he worked for the Associated Press in Ohio, the Rome Daily American in Italy, and United Press International in Brussels, Lisbon, and Beirut. He then moved to the Washington Post, serving as a copy editor on both the foreign and metro desks, and from 1980 to 1981 was a writer-editor in the book service of the National Geographic Society.

Ambassador Pearce entered the Foreign Service in January 1982, serving first as a vice consul and political officer in Riyadh. From 1984 to 1985, he was a watch officer in the State Department Operations Center, followed by a 1985-87 tour as a country desk officer for Greece. In 1987-88, he studied Arabic at the Foreign Service Institute field school in Tunis, then became chief of the political section at the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait. During the Gulf War, Ambassador Pearce worked as a liaison officer with the Kuwaiti government-in-exile in Taif, Saudi Arabia. He returned to Washington in 1991 to become a special assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs.

In 1992-93, Ambassador Pearce took sabbatical leave to write a book on diplomacy and the media. From 1994-97, he was Consul General in Dubai and from 1997-2001 he served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Damascus. From September 2001 to July 2003, he was Director of the Department of State’s Office of Northern Gulf Affairs, with responsibility for Iraq and Iran. In May-June 2003, Ambassador Pearce served with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad. He was Chief of Mission and Consul General at the United States Consulate General in Jerusalem from September 29, 2003 through July 2005, and then Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at the United States Embassy in Rome from 2005-2008. While in Rome, he served two excursion tours to Iraq, in March-April 2007 and September 2007-March 2008, as a senior adviser to Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

Ambassador Pearce was born in Portland, Maine on June 9, 1950, and received his bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine in 1972 and an M.A. in journalism from Ohio State University in 1973. He has been married since 1978 to the former Leyla Baroody. The Pearces have two children: Jennifer, who recently received her master’s degree in community and regional planning at the University of Oregon, and Joseph, who is studying for a master’s degree in Arabic studies at Georgetown University.