Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn President The World Food Prize Foundation

Dr. Kenneth M. Quinn, former U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia, assumed the leadership of the World Food Prize Foundation on January 1, 2000, following his retirement from the State Department. Ken Quinn Grew up in Dubuque, Iowa. Following graduation from Wahlert High School and Loras College, he attended graduate school and then joined the American Foreign Service where his rather unusual diplomatic career spanned almost 32 years. During this time he rose to become one of the two or three most decorated Foreign Service officers of his generation, recognized both for the important role he played in humanitarian and refugee endeavors, as well as for his actions in dangerous and violent situations. His first assignment was not to an embassy, but as a rural development officer in Vietnam. Subsequent assignments included: a stint on Henry Kissinger’s National Security Council staff at the White House; a position as Special Assistant to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke; an assignment as Narcotics Counselor at the US mission to the United Nations in Vienna; humanitarian efforts on behalf of refugees; four years as Chairman of the Inter-agency Task Force on POW/MIA’s; and membership of the US-Russia POW/MIA Commission. Dr. Quinn emerged from these experiences as one of the US government’s foremost experts on Indochina. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on the origins of the radical Pol Pot regime and is widely acknowledged as the first person to discover and report on the genocidal policies and practices of the Khmer Rouge in 1974. Twenty-five years later, while serving as Ambassador, he played a pivotal role in the 1999 capture of the last remaining Khmer Rouge general, who is now awaiting trial for causing the deaths of up to two million Cambodians. A fluent speaker of Vietnamese, Dr. Quinn also acted as interpreter for President Ford during high level meetings at the White House and personally negotiated the first ever entry by US personnel into a Vietnamese prison to search for American POW/MIA’s. He was also a member of the first US team to ever gain entry to a Russian prison for a similar search. In 1978, Dr. Quinn returned to Iowa to join the staff of Governor Robert Ray under a special exchange program. He was in the forefront of the Governor’s Indochinese refugee resettlement program and served as Executive Director of Iowa SHARES, the 1979 program that sent Iowa doctors, nurses, medical supplies and food to Cambodia to alleviate starvation. Subsequent assignments in the Philippines, the Middle East and Cambodia all came at times when terrorism and political violence permeated those areas. Ambassador Quinn has directed embassy operations during approximately 50 volatile demonstrations, two violent coup attempts and one outbreak of civil war, as well as coordinating the response to several international terrorist incidents. His embassy in Phnom Penh was judged to be the most well-prepared US diplomatic mission in terms of responding to external threats and was singled out for special commendation by Secretary Albright. It was also honored with the State Department Award for Human Rights and Democracy. At his retirement ceremony, Ambassador Quinn was presented the Secretary of State’s Award for Heroism and Valor for his efforts to protect American Citizens exposed to danger in Cambodia, as well as the four life saving rescues in which he participated in Vietnam. He is the only Foreign Service officer to have three times won the American Foreign Service Association Award for intellectual courage in challenging policy. Other honors include the Department of Defense Award for Distinguished Civilian Service, a Treasury Department Award for the arrest of an international counterfeiter and terrorist and the Presidential Distinguished Service Award—the highest recognition accorded career State Department officers. Ambassador Quinn and his wife Le Son have three children. They reside in Des Moines, Iowa, the headquarters of the World Food Prize Foundation. Contact Ambassador Quinn