Ralph R. Johnson is a retired United States Ambassador whose career in the United States Foreign Service spanned 30 years (1969-99). Following his tenure as U.S. Ambassador to Slovakia (1996-99) and his retirement from the Department of State he served (1999-2001) as the senior U.S. representative (Principal Deputy High Representative) in the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. OHR was created to implement the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the war in the Former Yugoslavia.
Johnson received a Presidential Meritorious Award in 1989 and a Superior Honor Award from the Department of State in 1987.
Johnson’s domestic assignments as a Foreign Service Officer included service as Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State for International Trade, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and later Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs. He spent two years on detail from the State Department to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, serving as the Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Europe and Japan.
Ralph Johnson headed the SEED (Support for East European Democracy) Program established by Congress and managed by the Department of State, a precursor to the public-private partnerships known as the Enterprise Funds.
Mr. Johnson and his wife, Jacqueline (retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, Bronze Star, 100 per cent disabled as a result of her service as a commander in the Persian Gulf) were consultants to United States Steel Corporation in Central Europe and the Balkans from 2001 until 2008.
Subsequently Mr. Johnson worked for two years with Quinn-Gillespie Associates, which at the time was a bipartisan lobbying firm in Washington, DC, serving as President of the International Group. Mr. Johnson dealt primarily with clients from the Balkans.
Born Portland, Oregon, Johnson graduated in 1963 from Seattle University with a BA in Political Science. He earned an MA (International Relations) from Columbia University in 1965.
He served in the United States Army from 1965-68, entering the U.S. Foreign Service in 1969. His overseas tours in the Foreign Service included Guyana (1969-71), Poland (1973-76), Bolivia (1977-79) and the Slovak Republic as United States Ambassador (1996-99). He speaks Polish, Slovak and Spanish and is a serious outdoorsman.