The Consul General
Dennis Walter Hearne, a career Foreign Service Officer in the U.S. Department of State, assumed duties as the United States Consul General in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 10 August 2009. This is Mr. Hearne’s fourth diplomatic assignment in Brazil: He was Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia from 2003-2007, and had postings earlier in his career as a political and consular officer in Brasilia and São Paulo.
Mr. Hearne has served for the past two years in Afghanistan: from July 2008-June 2009 as Political Advisor to the Commanding General of all U.S. and coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan, and for one year prior to that as advisor to U.S. combat brigades in southeastern provinces of the country near the Pakistan border. In an earlier conflict, Mr. Hearne also served in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1993-1996, and thereafter worked with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague from 1996-1998. Other assignments include political and consular work in Portugal, as well as in the Bureau of European Affairs and the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs in the Department of State.
A native of North Carolina, Mr. Hearne entered the Foreign Service in 1985. He has a Master of Science degree in security strategy from the National War College in Washington, DC, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wake Forest University. He speaks Portuguese and Croatian. Mr. Hearne is a four time recipient of the State Department's Superior Honor Award, and also holds two Meritorious Honor Awards. He is the father of one son. |
