A member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, Marc Dillard arrived in August 2025 as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria.
Mr. Dillard has had a range of assignments in Washington and abroad, serving as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires, a.i. in Nairobi and Budapest and as Director of the Office of Economic Policy and Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. Other postings have included Malawi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bulgaria, Japan, Korea, and the State Department’s Operations Center. He is the recipient of multiple departmental honor awards and the Presidential Rank Award.
Mr. Dillard received a bachelor’s degree in history from Duke University and a doctorate in political economy and public policy from the University of Southern California. Prior to joining the Department of State, he worked as a consultant in the private sector and taught economics at the university level. His wife, Julia Dillard, is also a Foreign Service Officer. They have two children.
