Ambassador to Suriname: Who Is John Nay?

Saturday, January 23, 2010
Source: allgov.com

President Barack Obama appointed a new ambassador for the South American nation of Suriname, a relatively prosperous country in northern South America with a fairly well-developed mining and manufacturing sector, whose population is almost evenly divided amongst Hindus, Protestants, Catholics, and Muslims. Nay was sworn in on August 13, 2009.

Born circa 1954 in Louisiana to Jack and Geraldine Nay, John R. Nay grew up in Battle Creek, Michigan, and attended Battle Creek Academy, a Seveth Day Adventist school. He earned a BA (1976) and MA (1977) in History from Andrews University and a Masters in National Security Strategy from the National Defense University in the late 1990s. In 1974, he served his Adventist mission in Japan as an English teacher, an experience he later said “played a significant part in my joining the Foreign Service by helping to stimulate my interest in international affairs and the world.”

Nay joined the State Department in 1977. His first overseas assignment was in Taiwan, from 1978 to 1980, followed by a posting to Singapore from 1980 to 1982. He returned to the U.S. to serve as an analyst on Cambodia and Korea from 1982 to 1985. Nay served at the U.S. Consulate General in Calgary, Canada, from 1985 to 1989, returning to the scene of his first foreign posting to serve as consular chief at the American Institute in Taiwan, in Taipei, Taiwan, from 1990 to 1993. Nay served in Washington, D.C., as Deputy Director for Pacific Island Affairs from 1993 to 1995, and then headed to Africa to be Regional Consular Officer for southern Africa, based in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 1996 to 1999. Continuing to serve overseas, he became Minister Counselor for Consular Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India, from 1999 to 2002. Back in Washington, DC, Nay served from 2002 to 2003 as a Senior Inspector in the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General, and from 2003 to 2006 as Office Director for African Regional and Security Affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs. He returned to Canada to be Consul General in Toronto from 2006 to 2009.

Nay, who has visited all 50 states, is language qualified in Chinese (Mandarin). He and his wife, Judith Ashdon Nay, have three children, Janelle, Jaclyn, and Jordan.