Lonnie “Reece” Smyth assumed his duties as Chargé d’Affaires ad interim at the U.S. Embassy in Dublin on January 20th, 2017 after the departure of Former Ambassador Kevin O’Malley.  Reece originally arrived in Dublin to take up the role of Deputy Chief of Mission on September 30, 2016.  He came directly from an assignment at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut where he served as the Counsellor for Political and Economic Affairs.  Previously, he was Deputy Director of the State Department’s Office of UN Political Affairs with responsibility for the conduct of multilateral diplomacy with the UN Security Council and General Assembly.

Prior to that, Reece served at the U.S. Mission to NATO as the action officer in the NATO-Russia Council, as Senior Economic Officer in the State Department’s Office of Arabian Peninsula Affairs, and as a Watch Officer in the Operations Center.  Other overseas tours include Skopje, Sarajevo, and Islamabad.

Prior to joining the Foreign Service in 1999, Reece worked in the private sector as a senior trade consultant in London and New York.

Reece is originally from Dayton, Ohio, but grew up in Houston, Texas.  He is a graduate of Baylor University and holds an MPP from Princeton University and a master’s level degree from the Université Libre de Bruxelles.  He speaks Russian, Serbo-Croatian, and French.