Donald Planty
Ambassador Donald Planty is a Senior Advisor of Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy firm, where he advises clients on Latin America issues. Ambassador Planty is former U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala and has nearly 40 years of experience in the private sector and public service at the local, state and national levels.
He is an expert on Latin American affairs and European security issues. In addition to Guatemala, Ambassador Planty has lived and worked in Panama, Chile, Mexico, Norway, Italy and Spain at key periods in the modern history of these nations.
He is currently President of Planty & Associates LLC, a consulting firm, and was a co-founder of Port Security International, a homeland security solutions firm. Previously, Ambassador Planty was Senior Managing Director at ManattJones Global Strategies (2001-2003), an international consulting firm in Washington, DC.
Prior to that, he was Chairman of the Board of the Worldwide Responsible Apparel Production and served as the Executive Director of Caribbean/Latin American Action (C/LAA), a non-profit organization promoting U.S. trade and investment in Latin America and the Caribbean.
On July 18, 1996, Mr. Planty was sworn in as the United States Ambassador to Guatemala. As Ambassador to Guatemala, he was instrumental in facilitating the historic 1996 Peace Accords, which ended four decades of internal conflict in that country.
From July 1989 to May 1992, Ambassador Planty served as Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, Norway. From January 1986 to June 1989, Ambassador Planty was Counselor for Political-Military Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Spain.
During his Madrid assignment, Ambassador Planty was Executive Secretary of the U.S. delegation for the negotiations that concluded the 1988 Agreement of Defense Cooperation between the United States and Spain. He also chaired one of the principal working groups during the negotiations.
Ambassador Planty was Minister-Counselor of the U.S. Embassy in Norway from 1989-1992, where he helped manage NATO’s adjustment to the fall of Communism in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
Prior to that, he served first as Deputy Personal Representative of the President and then as Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See. In 1983, he negotiated the historic agreement to restore diplomatic relations between the United States and the Vatican.
From 1981-1983 and again from 1986-1989, Ambassador Planty helped negotiate the Treaty of Friendship, Defense and Cooperation between the U.S. and Spain and was awarded the U.S. State Department’s Superior Honor Award for his work on the negotiations. Ambassador Planty is considered one of the foremost experts on Spain and one of the most experienced base rights negotiators.
Prior to his diplomatic service overseas, Mr. Planty served as legislative management officer in the Bureau of Congressional Relations at the U.S. Department of State, staff assistant for operations in the Executive Office of the State Department, and legislative assistant to Senator John Chafee of Rhode Island.
Mr. Planty earned his A.B. at Fordham University, his M.A. in Political Science from the University of New Mexico and studied at the Catholic University of Chile. Ambassador Planty speaks Spanish and Italian.