Lewis Lucke

Ambassador Lewis Lucke most recently served as US Response Coordinator for the Haiti earthquake, leading the United States’ $1.0 billion to date relief and recovery program.

Ambassador Lucke recently returned to his international consulting business, Lewis Lucke, LLC, brokering US investment into developing countries in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

Previously, Mr. Lucke was nominated by President George W. Bush and served as US Ambassador to the Kingdom of Swaziland from July 2004 through July 2006.

Ambassador Lucke served for 27 years with the U.S. Agency for International Development. His prior position was that of first USAID Mission Director for Iraq, where he managed a $4.0 billion reconstruction and economic development program, USAID’s largest program ever and the largest reconstruction effort funded by the United States since the Marshall Plan.

Mr. Lucke is from Austin, Texas, married to Joy Willeford with three grown children. Mr. Lucke received a Bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona.

Mr. Lucke served in the U.S. Foreign Service since 1978 in ten countries: Mali, Senegal, Costa Rica, Tunisia, Bolivia, Jordan, Haiti, Brazil, Iraq and Swaziland. He had been USAID Mission Director in his last five posts of Bolivia, Jordan, Brazil, Haiti, and Iraq.

Mr. Lucke has received USAID’s two highest awards, the Administrator’s Distinguished Career Award in 2001, and the Agency’s award for Heroism in 2004. He was named a Distinguished Alumnus of 2003 from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. He received the Secretary of Defense’s Award for Exceptional Public Service in 2004.

Mr. Lucke is fluent in French and Spanish and has a working knowledge of Arabic. He is the author of “Waiting for Rain: Life and Development in Mali, West Africa” published in 1999.