The US President Joe Biden has nominated David Slayton Meale, a former deputy chief of mission in Dhaka, as the next US Ambassador to Bangladesh, according to the White House.
Meale will succeed Ambassador Peter Haas, who has been America's top diplomat in Bangladesh since July 2021.
His nomination has been sent to the Senate for confirmation, the White House added.
Meale had been appointed to Dhaka as the deputy chief of the mission in August 2014.
A career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of minister-counsellor, he is currently deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Beijing.
He also served as Chargé d’Affaires ad interim there, the White House said in an announcement of his nomination.
Prior to this role, Ambassador-designate Meale was deputy assistant secretary for trade policy and negotiations for the department’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs.
He was previously the bureau’s director for sanctions policy and implementation.
Other positions include associate dean for the Leadership and Management School at the Foreign Service Institute in Washington, District of Columbia; counsellor for economic affairs at the US Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine; deputy director of the Office of Monetary Affairs in the Economic Bureau; and additional positions in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Guinea, and Washington.
Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Meale held positions in corporate finance with Sprint Telecommunications.
A native of Virginia, he holds a MS from the National Defense University’s Eisenhower School, an MBA from Tulane University, and a BA from the University of Delaware.
He is the recipient of the Baker-Wilkins Award for Outstanding Deputy Chief of Mission and has studied Chinese, Ukrainian, and French.
