New US ambassador arrives to begin tenure

Mar 09, 2019 News

Guyana has a new US envoy. Ambassador Sarah-Ann Lynch flew in this week.
On March 1st, she was sworn at the State Department in Washington, DC., by US Deputy Secretary of State, John Sullivan, who, in his remarks, highlighted the strong bilateral relationship between Guyana and the United States.
Lynch, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, has arrived here, bringing with her over 25 years of experience with the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), having most recently served as Acting Assistant Administrator for USAID’s Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, says the Embassy of Guyana, in Washington.
Lynch was confirmed by the US Senate on January 2, 2019 as the new ambassador to Guyana.

New US Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah-Ann Lynch

A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Lynch has been with USAID since 1993, and served overseas in Bangladesh, Peru, Afghanistan and Iraq. In Washington, she has served in the regional bureaus of the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the Bureau of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, and the Office of Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs (OAPA).
Lynch has received numerous awards, including USAID’s Distinguished Honor Award in 2010, the Agency’s highest performance award, for her service in Afghanistan and OAPA.
Before joining USAID, Lynch worked in both international business and for a non-governmental organization. Lynch also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco where she taught English at the secondary level.
She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and holds Masters Degrees from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and the National War College.
She replaces Ambassador Perry Holloway, who proceeded on retirement a few months ago and is now employed by the Guyana Goldfields Inc.
In her submissions to the US Senate last year, Lynch promised to promote her country’s values and support Guyana as it emerges as a petroleum producer. She said she will help this country leverage its newfound revenues to expand economic opportunities and social services for all its citizens.
One of her priorities is to help Guyana build upon gains in democratic governance, the rule of law and citizen security.
“This is a particularly momentous time for Guyana, a country the World Bank currently identifies as middle-income. However, the discovery of significant reserves of oil in recent years could alter the equation for this small nation.”
She warned that one has only to look to Guyana’s west – to Venezuela – to see how poor governance and corruption have destroyed what should be one of South America’s most prosperous economies.

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