Will Owen

POLITICAL ECONOMIC OFFICER 

Will Owen is a career member of the U.S. Foreign Service.  He arrived at post in Montevideo in October 2011.  Since his arrival he has served as acting DCM.  His most recent assignment was as the Senior State Department Advisor to the Department of Justice Rule of Law Coordinator at Embassy Baghdad.  The effectiveness of state institutions, particularly Justice sector institutions, is a key professional interest of Will’s. Montevideo is Will’s twelfth tour in the Foreign Service, which – with one exception, a tour in the State Department Operation’s Center followed by a detail to the White House Situation Room – have all been overseas tours.  Will served as head of the internal politics unit of the Political Section at Embassy Paris during the years that saw the defeat of the proposed Constitution for the European Union, the campaign that brought Nicholas Sarkozy to the presidency, and that administration’s first year of policy reforms.  When serving as Labor Officer in Guatemala Will was awarded the State Department’s annual award for Labor Diplomacy.  Early in his career, when serving as the political officer in Morocco, Will’s reporting focused on nascent political Islam in Morocco and its challenge to the established order.  Will speaks Spanish, French, Italian and Arabic.  He is an FSO graduate of the U.S. Army War College.  Will is married, and he and his wife Denise have three college-age children, Anne-Clémence, George and Hugo.

Samuel Madsen

CONSULAR SECTION CHIEF 

Consular Section Chief since September 2011.  Previous Foreign Service assignments include: Political Advisor and later Team Leader at Provincial Reconstruction Team Wasit, Iraq; Regional Counterterrorism Coordinator for East Africa, Nairobi, Kenya; ACS Chief, Bucharest, Romania; two years active duty, U.S. Air Force (post-9/11); Counterterrorism Analyst and Watch Officer, State INR; and Vice Consul in London and San Salvador. Prior to entering the Foreign Service Sam served in the U.S. Air Force and as a civilian analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency.  He has a BA in History from BYU and a MA in National Security Affairs/Latin America from the Naval Postgraduate School. Sam and his wife Coleen have five children, ages 11-29, plus two grandchildren.