Robert W. Thomas is the Deputy Chief of Mission at Embassy London. He recently served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs. Previously, Mr. Thomas led the Department of State’s recovery from the 2023 passport backlog, transforming the Department’s provision of passport services and launching the highly successful online passport renewal program. He previously served as Deputy Executive Secretary in the Office of the Secretary of State; Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’affaires a.i. at the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and United States Consul General to Montreal, Canada.
Mr. Thomas also previously served abroad in Mexico City; Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; Toronto, Canada; and Nouakchott, Mauritania. He has served multiple assignments in the Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs and Executive Secretariat. He also deployed as part of the Department’s crisis response team in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. He speaks French and Spanish. Mr. Thomas studied comparative religion and political science at Emory & Henry University in the central Appalachian Mountains of southwestern Virginia.