Deputy Chief of Mission
Biography of Michael A. Butler
Michael A. Butler was born on December 1, 1950 in Portsmouth, Virginia. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1973, earning a BA in English Literature and History. Following graduation Mr. Butler worked as a reporter for the Norfolk Ledger-Star from 1973-75; at the same time he earned an MA in History from Old Dominion University in Norfolk. In 1975 he returned to the University of Virginia as a student in its doctoral program in History; he earned a Ph.D. in American History, with primary focus on American diplomatic history and secondary focus on modern European history, in 1980. Mr. Butler's doctoral dissertation was entitled “The Dilemmas of Neutrality: The United States, the Oslo Nations, and the Response to Hitler, 1933-1940.” Mr. Butler was an Instructor of History at the University of Virginia faculty in 1978 and 1979; editor of the graduate History publication Essays in History in 1978-79; and recognized for his service to the University by election to its Raven Society.
Mr. Butler entered the Foreign Service in August 1980. Since then he has served as vice-consul in Oporto, Portugal; second secretary (political) in Lisbon; Staff Assistant in the State Department's European Bureau; Special Assistant to Under Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger and to Secretary of State George P. Shultz; second secretary (political) in Bucharest; first secretary (political) in Buenos Aires; Visiting Professor of Social Sciences and State Department Faculty Representative at the United States Military Academy, West Point, N.Y.; Counselor for Political and Economic Affairs at the American Embassy, Oslo, Norway; and Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid. In August 2003 he returned to Washington as Director for Multilateral Affairs in the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. In January 2005, he became Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in that bureau. Mr. Butler served as Deputy Chief of Mission in San Salvador from August, 2005 to May 2008, and took up his duties as Deputy Chief of Mission in Helsinki in June of 2008. Mr. Butler was promoted to the Senior Foreign Service in October, 2003.
Mr. Butler is the author of Cautious Visionary: Cordell Hull and Trade Reform, 1933-1937, which was published by Kent State University Press in 1998. He is currently working on a second book-length manuscript entitled “The Roosevelt Administration and the Politics of European Security, 1932-1936.” Mr. Butler is married to the former Denise Maria Gregorio. They are the parents of two children: Geoffrey, a former Peace Corps Volunteer and 2002 graduate in Classics from the University of Virginia; and Andrew, a 2004 graduate in English, also from the University of Virginia.