U.S. Ambassador Don Beyer honored for foreign service
Kudos to longtime Washington area dealer and, more recently U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein Donald S. Beyer, Jr. for outstanding service to American Citizens overseas. The organization honoring His Excellency Ambassador Beyer is a renowned international public interest group that regularly interacts with the U.S. Foreign Service known as American Citizens Abroad (ACA) . The award, appropriately named after Americas most celebrated Founding Father and the first Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, is presented each year to a single U.S. State Department officer.
One of the programs in particular that Ambassador Beyer organized and led that impressed ACA was a unique feedback gathering project where Americans who were abroad were systematically queried in a town hall meeting setting as to their needs for service and support, actual and prospective, from U.S. missions operating in the countries they were visiting.
Dons other public service included an eight year stint as Virginias lieutenant governor in the 1990s. Active further as a leader moving to the national level of the Democratic Party, he was an operative for former Vermont governor Howard Dean in his presidential bid in 2004. Don Beyer has been ambassador to Switzerland since 2009 and graciously has hosted WANADA and NADA leaders at the U.S. ambassadors residence in Bern when the dealer organizations have been in Switzerland to attend the Geneva Auto Show.
Through his career connection with the Don Beyer dealerships, he chaired AIADA in 2006 and was named a Time Dealer of the Year in 1991.
WANADA heartily congratulates Americas distinguished Ambassador to Switzerland for the recently bestowed high honor. Don and his wife Megan are planning to return to the Washington area when his ambassador appointment ends this summer.
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