Rozanne L. Ridgway

Rozanne L. Ridgway

Ridgway with Erich Honecker, 1985
Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs
In office
July 19, 1985  June 30, 1989
President Ronald Reagan
George H. W. Bush
Preceded by Richard Burt
Succeeded by Raymond Seitz
United States Ambassador to East Germany
In office
January 26, 1983  July 13, 1985
President Ronald Reagan
Preceded by Herbert Okun
Succeeded by Francis Meehan
Counselor of the United States Department of State
In office
March 20, 1980  February 24, 1981
President Ronald Reagan
Preceded by Matthew Nimetz
Succeeded by Robert McFarlane
United States Ambassador to Finland
In office
August 5, 1977  February 20, 1980
President Jimmy Carter
Preceded by Mark Austad
Succeeded by James Goodby
Personal details
Born (1935-08-22) August 22, 1935
Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
Political party Republican
Alma mater Hamline University

Rozanne Lejeanne Ridgway (born August 22, 1935 in Saint Paul, Minnesota) served 32 years with the U.S. State Department, holding several posts, including ambassador to Finland and to East Germany, and finished her career as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs. She is currently a director of Boeing, Emerson Electric Company, 3M Company, Sara Lee Corporation, and Manpower Inc..

Ridgway has been an American foreign policy leader since the Richard Nixon administration. She has acted as an international negotiator on behalf of the United States.

In the early 1970s, Ridgway negotiated longstanding issues over fishing rights in Brazil, Peru and the Bahamas. This led to her appointment in 1976 as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and Fisheries. During her tenure, she negotiated the 200-mile (370 km) fishing rights treaty. Ridgway's subsequent negotiations led to the return of property of U.S. citizens from Czechoslovakia.[1]

As Special Assistant to the Secretary of State for Negotiations and, subsequently, the Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Canada, she was the lead negotiator at all five Reagan-Gorbachev summits. These brought the first substantive reductions in nuclear weapons, signaled the beginning of the end of Communism and the Cold War, and established the fundamental realignment of global power as America prepared to enter the twenty first century.[2]

Between Ridgway's positions at the Department of State, she served as America's Ambassador to Finland from 1977 to 1980 and as the Ambassador to the German Democratic Republic between 1983 and 1985.[3]

She is a member of the following organizations:

She was president of the Atlantic Council from 1989 to 1996, and currently the chairwoman of the Baltic-American Freedom Foundation.[4]

References

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
Mark Austad
United States Ambassador to Finland
1977–1980
Succeeded by
James Goodby
Preceded by
Herbert Okun
United States Ambassador to East Germany
1983–1985
Succeeded by
Francis Meehan
Political offices
Preceded by
Matthew Nimetz
Counselor of the United States Department of State
1980–1981
Succeeded by
Robert McFarlane
Preceded by
Richard Burt
Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs
1985–1989
Succeeded by
Raymond Seitz
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