Robert O. Blake, Jr.

Ambassador Robert O. Blake is a career foreign affairs officer who currently serves as senior director at McLarty Associates, where he leads the Southeast Asia practice.  

Blake served for 31 years in the State Department and held various leadership positions. President Obama nominated him as assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, for which he was awarded the State Department’s Distinguished Service Award. His senior overseas appointments included ambassador to Indonesia, where he focused on building stronger business and educational ties between the United States and Indonesia; ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives; and deputy chief of mission in India. He earlier served as executive assistant to the undersecretary for political affairs, senior desk officer responsible for economic and political relations with Turkey, and in Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, and Nigeria.  

Blake holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is currently chairman of the board of the U.S.-Indonesia Society and serves on the international advisory councils of the World Resources Institute and the World Wildlife Fund.