Randy Berry, the U.S. State Department’s first-ever Special Envoy for the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) Persons, is scheduled to visit Taiwan from January 31 to February 3, 2016.
During his visit, Special Envoy Berry will meet with Taiwan officials and civil society representatives to discuss ways in which likeminded partners can work together to strengthen the global commitment to LGBTI rights. His trip to the region will also include stops in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, and Japan.
Prior to assuming his current post in April 2015, Special Envoy Berry served as the U.S. Consul General in Amsterdam. He was U.S. Consul General in Auckland, New Zealand, from 2009 to 2012, and prior to that, Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal, from 2007 to 2009. Mr. Berry’s career with the State Department has also taken him to postings in Bangladesh, Egypt, Uganda (twice), and South Africa, as well as Washington DC. Mr. Berry was raised on a family cattle ranch in rural Custer County, Colorado. He is a graduate of Bethany College of Lindsborg, Kansas, and was a Rotary Scholar at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. Before joining the Foreign Service in 1993, Berry worked as an international training manager for America West Airlines in Phoenix, Arizona.
