Mission Director

MICHAEL T. FRITZ
Mission Director

Mission Director's Address

Biography

Since July 2005, Michael Fritz has served as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director in Bulgaria. In this position, he directs a $120 million project portfolio which currently supports Rule of law; Economic development and promotion of private sectorled growth; and local government reform. All of which are major contributions in helping Bulgaria prepare itself for E.U. accession. In addition, the USAID mission in Bulgaria assists with strengthening the political processes by supporting free and fair elections, as well as providing humanitarian assistance across Bulgaria.

Before arriving in Sofia, Mr. Fritz was the Acting Mission Director for USAID’s Central Asian Regional Mission from February 2005 until July 2005. Prior to that, he was the Deputy Mission Director for the same office from June 2001 until February 2005. As the Deputy Director, he was responsible for designing and managing a $500 million assistance program in the five former Soviet Central Asian Republics. In this position he focused on a wide range of development issues including economic growth, with emphasis on the environment for small and medium enterprises; independent media, democracy and conflict mitigation, education, health and humanitarian assistance and natural resource management including water, energy and agriculture.

Mr. Fritz joined the Agency for International Development in 1988 as an International Development intern based in Washington, D.C. From 1990 to 1999 he served as Executive Officer in Cote d’Ivoire, Burundi, Ukraine and Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was responsible for administrative management for several of the most politically sensitive programs in the USAID portfolio, with annual program budgets up to $250 million. From 1999-2000, he served USAID’s Washington Desk Officer to the Regional Center for Southern Africa (RCSA) in Botswana. Mr. Fritz worked on key interagency working groups with the State Department, Commerce, Department of Transportation, National Security Council and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on a wide range of issues from flood response to trans-boundary watershed management. From 2000-2001 he was the Supervisory Executive Officer for the Global Bureau in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Fritz attended Portland State University, Oregon, where he received a B.A., with honors, in Psychology and Statistics, and then earning an M.B.A in International Business from the same University.

Prior to entering the Foreign Service in 1988, Mr. Fritz worked in the private sector in a variety of managerial positions, including defense logistics and hospital management in Saudi Arabia, freight forwarding in Egypt, and international ocean shipping in the United States.

Mr. Fritz with his wife, Susan, and four year old twins, Kai and Cody are residents of Wyoming.

^{Last updated: 3 October 2006}