Holgate, Laura S.H. – Representative of the United States of America to the Vienna Office of the United Nations, with the rank of Ambassador, and Representative of the United States of America to the International Atomic Energy Agency, with the rank of Ambassador – August 2021

REPORT FOR THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

UNITED STATES SENATE

SUBJECT: Ambassadorial Nomination: Certificate of Demonstrated Competence — Foreign Service Act, Section 304(a)(4)

POST:                  Representative of the United States of America to the Vienna Office of the United Nations,

with the rank of Ambassador, and Representative of the United States of America

to the International Atomic Energy Agency, with the rank of Ambassador

CANDIDATE:      Laura S.H. Holgate

Laura Susan Hayes Holgate currently serves as the Vice President for Materials Risk Management at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a position she has held since 2018. Prior to this, she served as the Representative of the United States of America to the Vienna Office of the United Nations, with rank of Ambassador and Representative of the United States of America to the Vienna Office of the United Nations, with rank of Ambassador from 2016-2017.  Her broad threat reduction and nonproliferation experience in several government departments and agencies, as well as in non-governmental organizations and academic institutions, makes her very well qualified to represent the United States at the Vienna Office of the United Nations and at the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Previously, Ms. Holgate worked as Vice President for Russia and the Newly Independent States at the Nuclear Threat Initiative in Washington, D.C.  She served as Director of the Office of Fissile Material Disposition, U.S. Department of Energy, Special Coordinator for Cooperative Threat Reduction, U.S. Department of Defense, and Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, U.S. Department of Defense, all in Washington, D.C.  She also served as Special Assistant to the Acting Director, U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament, in Washington, D.C.  Prior to that, Ms. Holgate was a Project Coordinator at the Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Ms. Holgate earned a B.A. from Princeton University in 1987, and a M.S. from MIT in 1990.  She has published numerous articles on arms control, nonproliferation, threat reduction, and related topics, and has won awards from the Council on Foreign Relations, Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy.  She speaks French.