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Chapter News
Haas Alumni Find Intrinsic Rewards in Diplomatic Careers
John Bernlohr, MBA 90, says "after graduating...my
life completely changed". His colleagues and fellow
Haas alumni Mary Lou Bartoletti, MBA 83; Jack Diffily,
MBA 86; and Hugues Ogier, MBA 90. agree. But it was
not just the MBA that changed their lives – it
was joining the US Department of State as Foreign Service
Officers in the management sphere.
Bernlohr joined the Foreign Service 14 years ago, after
undergraduate work at Harvard, seven jobs in 12 years,
and finally his Berkeley MBA. He has managed people,
property, and public funds in the Congo, France, Indonesia,
Hungary, and Washington DC, and he learned French, Indonesian,
and Hungarian along the way. He says he may have earned
more money had he stayed in Silicon Valley, but the
diplomatic lifestyle has been enriching in many other
ways. Where else would you have the chance to help evacuate
thousands of expatriates and even Jane Goodall's
chimpanzees?
Ogier epitomizes the diversity that the Department
would like to see. He is a naturalized US citizen, born
in French North Africa, and speaks French, English,
and Japanese. For his first tour in Lomé, Togo,
7 years ago, he managed a staff of 60 people, running
all logistical aspects of the US Embassy. From Togo,
he moved to Belgium where he was chief of the Visa Unit.
Now he is posted in Algiers, where he heads all administrative
functions. He already knows his following assignment:
Sapporo. In the capital of the northernmost Japanese
island, he will serve as the US Consul in charge of
the economic portfolio. He sees his career in the Foreign
Service not as a job but as a lifestyle. He loves the
fact that his kids attend great schools, hang out with
very diverse friends, and will end up speaking several
languages.
Diffily already had an exciting career managing crews
and tugs and ferries on the San Francisco Bay waterfront,
but the lure of working overseas and having even more
management responsibility led him to join the State
Department. As a first tour officer, he served in Ciudad
Juarez, Mexico, where he polished his negotiating skills
and helped Americans get out of jail. By his second
tour, he already had significant responsibility directing
35 local employees in Maputo, Mozambique. In Maseru,
Lesotho, he was one of four direct-hire Americans on
the embassy staff and handled the management, consular,
and security portfolios. He next served in Beirut where
he negotiated rent reductions of about $750,000, and
is now in Washington serving as the Botswana desk officer.
He hopes to go back to Africa next year.
Bartoletti left a 20-year logistics and finance
career to serve two years in Guatemala as a consular
officer, the traditional entry-level position for diplomats
that exposes new hires to embassy operations. Back at
"headquarters" Bartoletti is now putting her experience
to good use on the Integrated Logistics Management System
that the State Department is deploying to improve supply
chain management and accountability.
Visit www.careers.state.gov
for more information.
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