Biography

Peter Pham served as the United States Special Envoy for the Great Lakes (2018-2020) and Sahel (2020-2021) Regions of Africa, with the personal rank of US Ambassador. He is presently a Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council and a Senior Advisor at the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue University.

Pham was previously Vice President for Research and Regional Initiatives at the Atlantic Council as well as Director of the Council’s Africa Center. Earlier in his career, he was a tenured associate professor of justice studies, political science, and Africana studies at James Madison University, where he was director of the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs. From 2008-2017, he was concurrently Vice President of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) and Editor-in-Chief of ASMEA’s peer-reviewed quarterly Journal of the Middle East and Africa. He is the author of several books and more than 300 articles, essays and reviews on African politics, security, and economic issues.

He is currently Non-Executive Chairman of High Power Exploration (HPX), a Non-Executive Director of Africell Global Holdings and of Rainbow Rare Earths as well as a strategic advisor to several other companies, with a particular focus on managing geopolitical risk and developing business in Africa.

Pham is the recipient of numerous state honors and awards from African countries in recognition of contributions made over the course of his career to strengthening relations between the United States and Africa. In 2022, he was elected a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy.