Ambassador Wayne has served in a variety of positions, including U.S. Ambassador to Mexico and Argentina, Deputy Ambassador in Afghanistan, and Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs, in addition to work on Europe. “Tony” Wayne left the State Department in 2015 as a Career Ambassador, the most senior U.S. diplomatic rank. He is a Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Co-Chair of the Mexico Institute’s Board, and a senior non-resident advisor at two other think tanks: the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Atlantic Council. He writes and speaks frequently on international topics.

Ambassador Wayne’s most recent diplomatic posting was as the United States Ambassador to Mexico (2011- 2015). He led a U.S. Mission of 2,700 and helped to establish the U.S.-Mexico High Level Economic Dialogue, the Mexico-U.S. Entrepreneurship and Innovation Council, and new energy and environmental dialogues. During his tenure, higher education cooperation greatly increased through the new U.S.-Mexico Bilateral Forum on Higher Education, Innovation and Research as did public security cooperation.

Immediately preceding his time in Mexico, Ambassador Wayne spent two years serving at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan. Arriving in 2009, he was the first Coordinating Director for Development and Economic Affairs, leading a new office created to improve coordination of $4 billion in U.S. non-military assistance, and working with U.S., international and Afghan agencies. He was then named the Deputy U.S. Ambassador.

From 2006 to 2009, Wayne was the United States Ambassador to Argentina. He and his team promoted vigorous public diplomacy, youth engagement, partnership with civil society and businesses and successfully managed government-to-government disagreements.

Before serving in Argentina, Ambassador Wayne was the Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs (EB) for six years. During his tenure, EB played a leading role in reconstruction conferences, building international coalitions to cut off money supporting terrorists, supporting negotiation of major debt relief and economic reform packages, developing trade and investment policy and commercial promotion. He represented the State Department in meetings of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS), the U.S. government’s inbound investment screening organization.

Ambassador Wayne has received numerous honors. His last three awards are the Director General’s Cup for the Foreign Service (2017), the State Department’s Charles Cobb Award for Initiative and Success in Trade Development (2015), and Mexico’s Order of the Aztec Eagle (2015).