High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Francis J. Ricciardone (born 1951 Boston) is the United States ambassador to Turkey. Previously he was Deputy Ambassador at the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. He was also on leave from the U.S. Department of State as a guest scholar at the U.S. Institute of Peace. He has served as U.S. Ambassador to the Arab Republic of Egypt (2005–2008), the Republic of the Philippines and the Republic of Palau (2002–2005). As a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, he received U.S. Government and other organization awards for his work in foreign policy and program management, political reporting and analysis, and peacekeeping.