Administrators of the Agency for International Development
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Updates to the Principal Officers and Chiefs of Mission database are currently suspended. For information about the Department’s current and recent leadership, we recommend visiting the Department of State homepage’s Biographies of Senior Officials and List of U.S. Ambassadors.
Notice posted on January 12, 2024.
Last
updated March 14, 2024.
In the Act for International Development of 1961 (P.L. 87-195; Sep 4, 1961; 75 Stat. 445), Congress abolished the International Cooperation Administration and authorized the establishment of a new agency to administer foreign economic assistance programs. The President was to appoint, with the advice and consent of the Senate, an officer with the rank of an Under Secretary of an Executive Department to direct the new agency. Executive Order 10973 and State Department Delegation of Authority 104, both Nov 3, 1961, established the Agency for International Development within the Department of State. Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1979 (93 Stat. 1378) made AID part of the U.S. International Development Cooperation Agency, which provides planning, policy making, and policy coordination on international economic issues affecting developing countries. AID continues to administer economic assistance programs for developing countries. The Administrator of the Agency of International Development currently also serves as the Director of the International Development Cooperation Agency.
- Fowler Hamilton (1961–1962)
- David Elliott Bell (1961–1966)
- William Steen Gaud (1966–1969)
- John A. Hannah (1969–1973)
- Daniel Parker (1973–1977)
- John Joyce Gilligan (1977–1979)
- Douglas Joseph Bennet Jr. (1979–1981)
- Melville Peter McPherson (1981–1987)
- M. Alan Woods (1987–1989)
- Ronald William Roskens (1990–1992)
- John Brian Atwood (1993)