Patrick Ventrell is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister Counselor. He arrived to serve as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City in July 2023, and assumed the role of Chargé d’Affaires in August 2023. Since joining the State Department in 2003, he has served at the U.S. Embassies in Bogota, San Salvador, Baghdad, Santiago, and at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York.
In Washington, Patrick served as the Director of the Office of Press Relations in the Bureau of Public Affairs, and as Acting Deputy Spokesperson for the Department, where he was a regular briefer at the State Department Daily Press Briefing. He was detailed to the National Security Council Staff at the White House as a Director of Communications and National Security Council Deputy Spokesperson. Patrick also served as Director of the Office of Western Hemisphere Programs in the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). Most recently, he was the Director of the Office of Central American Affairs in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.
Patrick has a Bachelor of Science degree from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is a distinguished graduate of the National War College at the National Defense University, where he earned a Master of Science degree in National Security Strategy and was recognized with the Commandant’s Theodore Roosevelt Award as top graduate in his class and with the George Kennan Strategic Writing Award. Patrick is originally from Billings, Montana, and lives with his wife and three children.