Ambassador Adam Blackwell

Adam Blackwell serves as Vice President, International at Development Services Group, Inc., managing a global effort on behalf of the U.S. Department of State to monitor and analyze incidents of terrorism and violence worldwide. Currently, he chairs the Advisory Board of OriginAll, and is on the board of the Inter-American Defense Foundation, Trust for the Americas, POLCYB, and Root International, and is a member of The Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime.

A former Canadian diplomat to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Kenya, Mexico, United Nations, he was Ambassador to the Dominican Republic. At the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, D.C., he served as assistant secretary of finance and administration, secretary for external relations, and secretary for multidimensional security from 2009 to 2016.

Adam has led several election observations and good offices missions. He was a member of the Commission to Reform Public Security in Honduras, and the Technical Coordinating Committee to manage the peace process in El Salvador. In 2015–16, he was Ambassador-in-Residence at the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies. He served as chair of the World Economic Forum’s Meta-Council on the Illicit Economy, and on task forces on cybersecurity and human trafficking. He is former resident fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio, Italy, and author of the books: “If the War on Drugs is Over – Now What?  Security Without Easy Answers” (Freisen Press, 2015) and “Si la Guerra contra las drogas llega a su fin – Que sigue? (Inacipe Mexico 2016).

Adam and his wife Caroline live in Belleair, and he is a member of the Clearwater Rotary Club.