Quick Facts
Biography
Alexander A. Arvizu (born 1958) is an American diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Albania from July 1, 2010 to January 11, 2015.
Early life
Arvizu was born on U.S. Army base in Japan and is a first-generation American. His father is originally from Dolores Hidalgo, Mexico and mother was from Kyoto, Japan. Arvizu grew up in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where his family settled after return to the United States. In 1980, he graduated with a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University. He has studied several Asian languages such as Japanese, Korean, Thai and Khmer.
Political career
Arvizu joined the United States Foreign Service in 1981. He held various State Department positions overseas and had been domestically assigned to positions related to U.S. foreign policy in East Asia and the Pacific. While in Washington, D.C., he served as Deputy Director of the State Department's Office of Japanese Affairs and then Director for Asian Affairs in the United States National Security Council in the second Clinton Administration.
Among his overseas positions were Deputy Chief of Missions in US Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 2000-2003 and US Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand in 2004-2007. In addition to that, he served two tours in Seoul, South Korea and one tour in Osaka-Kobe, Japan. From 2003 through 2004, Ambassador Arvizu was a member of the 46th Senior Seminar, a leadership program for senior government officers.
After returning from Thailand, he served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary in charge of Regional Security for Japan and Korea from 2007 through 2009. He then worked as the Director of Entry-Level Assignments in the Bureau of Human Resources.
On July 1, 2010 Arvizu was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Albania by President Barack Obama. He was sworn in as the Ambassador to Albania on November 10, 2010.
