ONE of the USA’s most distinguished public servants, Ambassador (retired) Daniel A. Clune, has been appointed as Chair of MAG America.
Ambassador Clune joined the MAG America board in 2019, and has a long history of foreign service and leadership in the public sector. He served as U.S. Ambassador to Laos from 2013-2016, where he made clearing unexploded ordnance from the Vietnam conflict a priority and successfully supported an increase in U.S. funding for UXO clearance from $9 million to $30 million per year. Clune also served as a key figure in former President Barack Obama’s historic visit to Laos in 2016 where he pledged to increase aid funding to clear ordnance from the country.
A career Foreign Service Officer, Ambassador Clune also served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, and as the Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d'Affaires at the U.S embassies in Canberra, Australia and Nassau, Bahamas. He was Director of the State Department’s Office of Monetary Affairs and served as head of the U.S. Delegation to the Paris Club. He spent a year at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative as Director of Middle East and Mediterranean Affairs and served at U.S. embassies in Lima, Peru and Jakarta, Indonesia.
Ambassador Clune is a graduate of Boston College and Boalt Hall School of Law, the law school at the University of California at Berkeley. He practiced law for ten years in Chicago before joining the Foreign Service in 1985. Since his retirement, he has worked with Catholic Charities representing undocumented immigrants on a pro bono basis.
Clune’s unanimous vote to the chairmanship comes after former Board Chair Tommy Ross departed the organization on January 20 to serve in the Biden Administration as Chief of Staff to the U.S. Navy. Ambassador Clune assumes chairmanship of the Board effective February 19, 2021. MAG America and our colleagues across the globe welcome him warmly and look forward to supporting his leadership and vision for a landmine-free future.
