Description: Virtual Economics Club meeting: Bobby Richey, Jr.

Location: Virtual

Title: TBA

Bobby Richey, Jr. ('86 MS economics)
Acting Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy Beijing

Bobby Richey, Minister Counselor for Agricultural Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, assumed the role of Acting Deputy Chief of Mission on October 14, 2021. Prior to arriving in China, Bobby was the Acting Associate Administrator of the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. He was also the Director General of the Foreign Service for FAS with responsibility for managing the FAS’s Foreign Service Corps of 130 officers, mentoring 30 Foreign Service trainees, and overseeing about 350 foreign nationals working in FAS’s 93 offices around the world.  He joined FAS in 1986.  Bobby has served at the U.S. Mission to the European Union, and in the U.S. Embassies in Mexico City, Berlin and Bangkok. When he served as Counselor for Agricultural Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, he covered USDA’s interests not only in Thailand, but also Burma and Laos. Over his career, he has worked on a breadth of issues ranging from international food and health regulations to global food security.

Bobby earned a Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural economics from Texas Tech University in 1984 and a Master of Science degree in economics from Iowa State University in 1986. He grew up on his family’s cotton farm near Lubbock, Texas.  He currently has the rank of Career Minister in the Foreign Service of the United States.  He is married to U.S. Army LtC. (ret.) Larry Allen.