Neal Kringel

Neal F. Kringel joined the State Department in 2011 after a distinguished 27-year career in the U.S. Air Force as a Navigator and Africa foreign area officer. His most recent assignment was as the Executive Director of the State Department’s Medical Services Bureau.

From October 2019 until January 2022, he was the Director of Management for the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) within the Political Military Affairs Bureau. From November 2020 through May 2021, he served as the SRAR’s (Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation) senior resident negotiator in Doha, Qatar. There he met daily with representatives from the Taliban, Government of Afghanistan, and the international community. From January 2017 until May 2019, he served Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary and Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations (CSO). In 2018, he served two stints as chargé d’affaires, at U.S Embassy, Bangui, Central African Republic. As the Director of CSO’s Africa Office from 2012 until 2017 he developed and led conflict prevention engagements in 24 African countries.

Among his military assignments, he served as the Deputy Political Advisor, NATO Joint Forces Command, Brunssum, Netherlands; a Provincial Reconstruction Team commander in Afghanistan; Defense Attaché, U.S Embassy, Libreville, Gabon; Political-Military officer for the Horn of Africa and Jordan, U.S. Central Command, Tampa, Florida; and as a Security Cooperation Officer at U.S. Embassy, Nairobi, Kenya and U.S. Embassy, Kabul, Afghanistan. In addition, he’s had operational flying assignments in Japan, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, and across the United States; logging over 3,000 flying hours.

Mr. Kringel received his BS from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and an MS from Troy University. He is an all-but-dissertation PhD candidate in International Development. He is an adjunct professor at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Among his major awards and decorations are the Airman’s Medal, the Bronze Star, the Department of State Award for Heroism, the Department of State Superior Honor Award and the l’Ordre National du Mérite Gabonais (National Order of Merit for Gabon). He speaks conversational French.