Ambassador to the Cooperative Republic of Guyana

Ambassador D. Brent Hardt

D. Brent Hardt

D. Brent Hardt was sworn in as Ambassador to the Cooperative Republic of Guyana on August 19, 2011. He also serves as Plenipotentiary Representative of the United States of America to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

Ambassador Hardt is a career Senior Foreign Service Officer with extensive service in the Western Hemisphere and Europe. Prior to his nomination, he served as Chargé d'Affaires at the U.S. Embassy to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. He also served as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d'Affaires at U.S. Embassies in The Bahamas and the Holy See in Rome. Ambassador Hardt joined the United States Foreign Service in 1988, and served as a Consular Officer in Barbados, Political Officer in Berlin, and Political-Military Officer in The Netherlands, where he also served as an exchange diplomat in the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He returned to the Eastern Caribbean as Political-Economic Section Chief and Acting Deputy Chief of Mission from 1996-2000 helping to develop the 1997 Caribbean-U.S. Summit agenda and subsequently to implement Summit commitments with countries in the Eastern Caribbean. In Washington, he served as Team Leader for NATO Policy in the Office of European Political and Security Affairs in the Department of State, where he was responsible for NATO enlargement and European Security and Defense Policy issues.

Ambassador Hardt has received various Department of State awards, including the Director General's Award for Reporting, five Superior Honor Awards, and two Meritorious Honor Awards. He earned a Bachelor's degree in History from Yale University, and Master's and Doctorate degrees from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He has published numerous articles on U.S. foreign policy, and speaks Italian, Dutch, German and French.

The Ambassador is married, and he and his wife, Saskia, have three sons.