Popadiuk Roman

Roman Popadiuk served as the first United States Ambassador to Ukraine under George H.W. Bush, from 1992 to 1993. From 1999-2012, he served as the Executive Director of the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. He is now a Principal in Bingham Consulting LLC, a subsidiary of Bingham McCutchen LLP based in Washington, DC. 

Roman Popadiuk was born in Austria on May 30, 1950. He received a B.A. from Hunter College in 1973, and a PhD from CUNY Graduate Center in 1981. He was an adjunct lecturer in Political Science at Brooklyn College in New York City. He joined the United States Foreign Service in 1981. From 1982 to 1984, he worked as a diplomat in Mexico City. From 1984 to 1986, he worked in the Department of State and in the National Security Council. From 1986 to 1989, he served as Assistant Press Secretary, then Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Press Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Deputy Assistant under Ronald Reagan. He served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Press Secretary for Foreign Affairs under George H.W. Bush, from 1989 to 1992.

He served as the first United States Ambassador to Ukraine under George H.W. Bush from 1992 to 1993. From 1993 to 1995, he taught at the Foreign Service Institute. From 1995 to 1998, he served as the International Affairs Adviser on the staff of the Office of the Commandant at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C.. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and sits on the Board of Advisers of the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at The Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. He is also on the Board of Advisers of the Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University and the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council in Washington, D.C..

He has received a number of awards, including the United States Department of State Meritorious and Superior Honor Awards. Other awards include the Annual Achievement Award from the Ukrainian Institute of America, the Shevchenko Freedom Award presented by the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, and the Hunter College Hall of Fame.  He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Foreign Affairs Museum Council. He is also a member of the U.S.-Ukraine Energy Task Force of the Ukraine 2020 Policy Dialogue, a forum co-sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine and the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation in Washington, D.C., aimed at stengthening U.S.-Ukraine relations and Ukraine's integration into Europe.  He has published two books and articles in The Ukrainian Quarterly, The Foreign Service Journal, Mediterranean Quarterly, and Presidential Studies Quarterly. He is married to Judith Ann Fedkiw, and they have four children, Gregory, Matthew, Catherine and Mary.