David Lyon assumed his duties as the American Ambassador to the Republic of the Fiji Islands on January 9, 2003. Ambassador Lyon is also accredited to the Republic of Kiribati, the Republic of Nauru, the Kingdom of Tonga, and Tuvalu.

Ambassador Lyon was born in Frankfurt and grew up in Germany, Brazil and the United States. He joined the Foreign Service in 1974 after graduating with a degree of History from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. His previous overseas posts include Lagos, Recife, Accra, Manila, Bangkok, Beijing, and Melbourne, Australia.

From 1984-86, Ambassador Lyon was Deputy Director, then Acting Director, of the Office of Regional Affairs in the Bureau of African Affairs. He spent the next year studying international security policy at the U.S. National War College. His third domestic assignment was in 1991-94 as an office director in the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics Matters.

Ambassador Lyon received Superior Honor Awards for his work in the Philippines, the Bureau of International Narcotics Matters, and China. He also received a Meritorious Honor Award for managing consular operations in China during the student demonstrations that followed the accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in May 1999. His other awards include three Senior Performance Awards, the National War College Alumni Association’s award for Excellence in Research and Writing, and the 1997-98 Thomas Jefferson award for Outstanding Service to American Citizens Overseas.

Ambassador Lyon is accompanied by his wife. Prior to their marriage, Mrs. Lyon was an Army nurse in the U.S. and Okinawa, and a Peace Corps volunteer and staff officer in Brazil. The Lyons’ two children are university students in Australia.

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