Allan Mustard

Allan Phillip Mustard is a retired American agricultural economist and career diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Turkmenistan from 2014 to 2019. He is now the chair of the OpenStreetMap Foundation, and advises the Caspian Policy Center.

Allan Mustard
United States Ambassador to Turkmenistan
In office
2014–2019
Appointed byBarack Obama
Preceded byLaura E. Kennedy
Succeeded byMatthew Klimow
Personal details
NationalityAmerican
Education

Early years

Mustard's father, Donald, was a veterinarian;[1] his mother was a teacher.[2] Mustard was raised on a dairy farm in Brady,[2] in Grays Harbor County, Washington, where he attended Montesano High School.[1] He was subsequently educated at Grays Harbor College.[3] In 1978 he graduated with BAs in Political Science, and in Slavic Languages and Literature, from the University of Washington, Seattle.[3]

Mustard's early positions included work as a guide-interpreter for the U.S. International Communication Agency in Kishinev, Moscow[3] and at Rostov-na-Donu, in the then USSR, and a year as a social worker with the Jewish Family Service in Seattle.[2][3] While in the USSR he met an agricultural attaché, who encouraged him to study agriculture as a route to his desired career in the diplomatic service.[1] He achieved an MS in agricultural economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1982.[3]

Career

Mustard's first permanent government role, from 1982 to 1986, was as an agricultural economist at the Foreign Agricultural Service of the Department of Agriculture, in Washington DC.[2][3] From 1986 to 1988 he was an assistant agricultural attaché at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, USSR.[2][3] During that period, the Soviets withdrew all local staff from the embassy, so Mustard's ability to touch-type in Russian saw him doubling up in a clerical support role.[2] In 1988 be became an agricultural trade officer at the Consulate General in Istanbul, Turkey, serving there until 1990.[2][3]

He was back at the Foreign Agricultural Service from 1990, first as deputy coordinator for Eastern Europe and the Soviet Secretariat, being promoted to deputy director of the Emerging Democracies Office in 1992.[2][3]

From 1996 to 2000 he served as agricultural counselor at the U.S. embassy in Vienna, where he had responsibility not only for Austria, but also Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia.[2][3]

This was followed by another period in Washington, D.C., first as assistant deputy administrator for foreign agricultural affairs at the Foreign Agricultural Service (2000-2002) and then as a Fellow in the Senior Seminar in Foreign Relations at the Department of State (2002-2003).

From 2003 to 2008 he served as Agricultural Minister-Counselor, back at the Moscow embassy, and from 2008 to 2011 in the equivalent position at the U.S. embassy in Mexico City, Mexico.[2][3] From 2011 he was in an equivalent position in New Delhi, India. At the embassy there he had responsibility for programs in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, including food aid in the latter.[2]

He was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to Turkmenistan on November 25, 2014.[3] In October 2015 he was joined at a groundbreaking ceremony for a new embassy building in Turkmenistan's capital, Ashgabat, by the city's mayor.[4] Following his June 2019 retirement,[5] he was succeeded by Matthew Klimow.

In June 2020 he was one of 612 former diplomats, senior military officers, and other government officials who signed an open letter expressing alarm at calls by President Donald Trump and others for the use of U.S. military personnel to end Black Lives Matter protests on U.S. soil.[6]

Support for open content projects

During his ambassadorship, Mustard was a proponent of OpenStreetMap, as well as an active volunteer mapper.[7][8] At the North American Cartographic Information Society's annual banquet in 2019, he gave a keynote address on his mapping in Turkmenistan.[9] He also gave keynote presentations at the OSM annual conference, State of the Map in 2016[10] and 2020.[11] In December 2019, he was elected chair of the board of the OpenStreetMap Foundation.[12]

He describes himself as a Wikipedian.[13]

Awards and honors

Mustard has received the United States Department of Agriculture's Distinguished Honor Award (the agency's highest); and its Superior Honor Award (twice); as well as the Grand Decoration of Merit in Gold of the Republic of Austria (the country's highest for a foreigner).[14]

Personal life

Mustard is married to Ann Anderson Mustard, a former CBS Radio News correspondent,[2] whom he courted at the University of Illinois.[15] They have one daughter.[16]

He sits on the advisory board of the Caspian Policy Center.[14]

Mustard speaks Russian, German and "basic Spanish".[3]

References
  1. Krauss, Louis (November 17, 2017). "Turkmenistan ambassador originally from Grays Harbor visits college". The Daily World. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  2. "U.S. Ambassador to Turkmenistan: Who Is Allan Mustard?". AllGov.
  3. "His Excellency Allan Phillip Mustard". Washington Diplomat. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  4. Putz, Catherine. "US Breaks Ground on New Embassy in Turkmenistan". The Diplomat. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
  5. "The Honorable Allan Mustard to present ACES Distinguished International Lecture on Nov. 6". College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  6. "The Strength of America's Apolitical Military: A Statement by Former U.S. Ambassadors, Military Officers, and Senior Officials". Just Security. June 15, 2020. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  7. "Mapping Ashgabat, Turkmenistan: Before an Earthquake and in Time for the Games". United States State Department. Archived from the original on October 27, 2017.
  8. "Mapper of the month: Allan Mustard (USA/Turkmenistan)". OpenStreetMap Belgium. August 10, 2018. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  9. ""I'm Tired of Getting Lost!" or How Open-Source Cartography Improved our Lives in Turkmenistan". November 26, 2019. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  10. "State of the Map keynote". October 4, 2016.
  11. "Winds of Change in OpenStreetMap". State of the Map 2020. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
  12. "Board Member Bios". OpenStreetMap Foundation. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  13. Mustard, Allan. "Allan Mustard". Twitter. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  14. "Advisory Board". Caspian Policy Center. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  15. "Allan Mustard Profile". 150 Years. University of Illinois. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  16. "Keynote Speaker". YUMUNC 2020.

Further reading
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
Laura E. Kennedy		 United States Ambassador to Turkmenistan
2014–2019		 Succeeded by
Matthew Klimow
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