Ambassador Eduardo Aguirre, Jr. United States Ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain and the Principality of Andorra Madrid, Spain
Eduardo Aguirre, U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain and the Principality of Andorra, was appointed by President George W. Bush and sworn-in by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He presented diplomatic credentials to H. M. King Juan Carlos I of Spain on June 29, 2005. He also presented credentials to President Jacques Chirac and Bishop Joan Enric Vives Sicília, Co-Princes of Andorra. Previously, he served, as the first Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), an Under Secretary rank position in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He led a team of 15,000 employees serving over 6 million annual applicants seeking immigration benefits. Under his leadership, USCIS made significant and measurable progress towards eliminating the application backlog, improving customer service, and enhancing national security. Previously, he served as the Acting Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States and President of Bank of America’s International Private Bank.
Ambassador Aguirre earned an undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University (LSU). He is a graduate of the American Bankers Association's National Commercial Lending Graduate School. He has received honorary doctorates from the University of Connecticut, the University of Houston, and the Universidad Tecnológica de Santiago in the Dominican Republic. Born in 1946, Ambassador Aguirre and his wife, Maria Teresa, each emigrated from Cuba as “unaccompanied minors” at the age of 15. The Aguirres have two adult children, Eddy and Tessie.