Ross Wilson is a former diplomat and American Foreign Service officer who, between 1979 and 2021, served abroad and in Washington for and on behalf of the United States. He was ambassador to Azerbaijan (2000-2003) and to Turkey (2005 2008). After a period out of government , he was recalled to lead American embassies as chargé d’affaires in Turkey (2014), Georgia (2018-2019), and Afghanistan (2020-2021). For his service during the last 20 months of our diplomatic presence in Kabul that ended in August 2021, Ambassador Wilson received the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award, the State Department’s highest honor. Earlier, he held assignments at the American embassies in the USSR and Czechoslovakia and consulate general in Melbourne, Australia.

In Washington, Ambassador Wilson was principal deputy to the ambassador-at-large and special advisor to the Secretary of State for the new independent states of the former Soviet Union in 1997-2000. Other senior domestic assignments included serving as deputy executive secretary of the State Department for Secretaries James Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger and Warren Christopher; chief of staff to Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick; and chief US negotiator for the Free Trade Area of the Americas. At the outset of his career, he worked in the State Department’s offices dealing with the Soviet Union and Egypt.

Outside government, Ambassador Wilson was director of the Eurasia Center at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank, where he led work on Turkey, the former Soviet states, and regional energy and economic issues from 2010 to 2014. He has taught international affairs and American foreign policy at George Washington University and Carleton College; been on boards and advisory councils of the Eurasia Foundation, American Voices, and the Institute of Turkish Studies; and in 2019 and 2022-2025 served as chairman of the board at Global Minnesota, a World Affairs Council-affiliate organization based in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area that promotes international engagement.

Ambassador Wilson received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota and master’s degrees from Columbia University and the US National War College. He holds memberships in the American Academy of Diplomacy, the American Foreign Service Association, and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. He and his wife, Margo Squire, also a retired American Foreign Service officer, live near Minneapolis.