Ambassador Kevin Whitaker

Kevin Whitaker retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2021 with the rank of Career Minister.  He served from 2014-19 as Ambassador to Colombia, the longest-serving U.S. ambassador to that nation in a century.  During that period, Ambassador Whitaker worked with two U.S. and two Colombian administrations, and played a key role in the U.S. support for the 2016 Peace Accord between the Colombian government and the FARC insurgency.  With his team at Embassy Colombia, he also designed and helped win approval for a $1 billion program of U.S. financial support for Colombia to implement the historic Accord.

Ambassador Whitaker previously served in a number of senior positions in the Department of State, including as Deputy Chief of Mission at Embassy Caracas (2005-07), Deputy Executive Secretary, Deputy Assistant Secretary for South America, and in assignments throughout the hemisphere.  He has particular expertise in civil-military relations and confronting transnational crime.  He is the recipient of numerous State Department achievement awards, and is a 2017 Presidential Rank Award winner.

He currently is a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, serves on the Diplomatic Engagement Advisory Committee at Meridian International Center, and runs his own consulting business. 

Ambassador Whitaker’s early years were spent traveling around the United States as an army brat.  At the age of 11, he moved with his family to Virginia, which he has called his home for over 50 years.  He is a graduate with distinction of the University of Virginia (1979). 

He is married to Elizabeth (Betsy) Whitaker, a retired Senior Foreign Service officer who had a distinguished career in Public Diplomacy.  Their son, LT Daniel Whitaker, USCG, is a U.S. Coast Guard aviator assigned with his wife, LT Chloe Benoist, also a Coast Guard aviator, to the Coast Guard Air Station in San Francisco, where they fly MH65 Dolphin helicopters.  Kevin has twin sons from a previous marriage, Stuart, who works in banking, and Thomas, a biologist.