Ambassador Mark Green (ret.) serves as the executive director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership, an action-oriented policy institution dedicated to advancing character-driven leadership based on security, economic opportunity, freedom and human dignity.

Prior to joining the McCain Institute, from August 2017 to April 2020, Green served as administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Known for an approach he named the “Journey to Self-Reliance,” Green helped transform the agency with a new metrics-based, country-by-country framework, USAID’s first-ever private sector engagement policy, sweeping reform of partnership and procurement policies, innovative education assistance for children abroad living in crisis and conflict, a comprehensive effort to protect religious liberty, and a new fund for the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity initiative.

In addition to program reforms, Green led the agency through a reorganization of its structure and global presence to meet the challenge of widescale human displacement conflated with rising authoritarianism, and to seize new opportunities presented by technology and private enterprise. Along with reshaping bureaus and centers within the agency, Green oversaw the opening or reopening of offices in Somali, Niger, Cameroon, Ecuador and Tunisia.

Prior to USAID, he served as president of the International Republican Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing democracy and human liberty around the world. He has also served as president and chief executive officer of the Initiative for Global Development, a nonprofit organization that engages corporate leaders to reduce poverty through business growth and investment in Africa and senior director at the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, a network of 400 businesses, nongovernmental organizations, policy experts and other leaders supporting development tools in American foreign policy.

Green served as the U.S. ambassador to Tanzania from mid-2007 to early 2009. While there, he led a mission of more than 350 Americans and Tanzanians and was ultimately responsible for some of the world’s largest U.S.-led development programs. Before that, he served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Wisconsin’s 8th District. While in Congress, he helped craft key policy initiatives including the Millennium Challenge Act and President George W. Bush’s history-making AIDS program. He also served as an assistant majority whip.

Green was the longest-serving member of the board of directors of the Millennium Challenge Corporation. He has also served on the Human Freedom Advisory Council for the Bush Institute and the Board of the Consensus for Development Reform, a coalition of policy and business leaders devising new principles for making development policy more effective and growth-oriented.

Green holds a law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. In 2012, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science from Georgetown University’s School of Nursing and Health Studies. In 2014, President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania presented him with a special Presidential Certificate of Recognition and Appreciation.