Amb. William C. Eacho

William C. Eacho is Board Chair of IFES, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, which is the world’s leading NGO helping build resilient democracies. He also serves as Board Chair of Friends of Acadia. He is CEO of the Partnership for Responsible Growth, an organization advocating a global price on greenhouse gas emissions, and Co-Chair of the Climate Solutions Fund.  

Eacho served from 2009-2013 as the U.S. Ambassador to Austria, and from 2013 to 2016 on the Senior Advisory Group to the Director of National Intelligence. He is married to Donna W. Eacho, who served with him in Vienna, and they have three adult sons. From 2015-2020 he was also a Visiting Professor of the Practice in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.  

As Ambassador to Austria, Ambassador Eacho oversaw the multi-agency U.S. government presence. He was very involved in the State Department’s energy diplomacy efforts in support of a Southern Corridor to enhance European energy security.  

Eacho received a master’s in business administration with distinction from Harvard Business School in 1979. His business career has included two decades in foodservice distribution and two decades plus as an investor in and developer of multifamily real estate. Eacho is a Trustee of the Diplomacy Center Foundation, a Senior Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar, and serves on the board of the American-Austrian Foundation.