Bobby Pittman

Bobby J. Pittman Jr. currently serves as the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs. In this capacity, he is the lead advisor to the National Security Advisor and the President on Africa issues. He also serves as the President's Africa Personal Representative (APR) to the G8. [http://www.bmz.de/en/EU_G8/Blickpunkte/g8_afrikabeauftragte/index.html]

Background

Prior to his current appointment, Mr. Pittman was the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. He served as part of the management team responsible for implementation of U.S. foreign policy toward Africa and the management of some 40 U.S. missions in Africa, including more than 10,000 foreign and domestic staff.

Mr. Pittman previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Development Finance and Debt at the Department of the Treasury. [http://www.treas.gov/organization/bios/pittman-e.html] He was a key architect and the lead U.S. negotiator of the 100 percent debt relief proposal endorsed by the G8 at the Gleneagles Summit in July 2005 (which, to date, has delivered more than $40 billion in debt stock cancellation for the world's poorest countries). [http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/intlrel/hfa22265.000/hfa22265_0f.htm] He also acted as lead representative of the U.S. government for the multi-billion dollar replenishment negotiations of the World Bank, African Development Bank and Asian Development Bank in 2004-2005. Mr. Pittman served as Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC) where he helped plan and advised the White House on the 2003 U.S. intervention in Liberia; served on the working group that designed the Millennium Challenge Account, the President's new multi-billion dollar performance-based aid initiative; and organized the US-Africa Trade & Economic Cooperation AGOA Forum. [http://news.findlaw.com/wash/s/20060605/20060605125111.html] He began his career as an analyst with the Central Intelligence Agency.

Mr. Pittman graduated summa cum laude from Florida State University with a B.S., studying economics, computer science and mathematics. He received an M.A. in economics from the University of Chicago, where he also did doctoral work in applied economics.