Ambassador Herman Cohen served as the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs under President George H. W. Bush (1989-1993), Special Assistant for African Affairs to President Ronald Reagan and Senior Director for Africa on the White House staff (1987-89). During his 38-year career, he served in five African countries and twice in France.  He was the American Ambassador to Senegal and the Gambia (1977- 1980), and US Chief of Mission in Kinshasa, Congo, 1968-1969. Amb. Cohen represented the U.S. in direct conversations with the following African leaders: Senghor (Senegal), Houphouet-Boigny (Cote d’Ivoire), Bongo (Gabon), Moi (Kenya), Kaunda (Zambia), Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Mobutu (Zaire), Kabila (Congo), Babangida (Nigeria), al-Gaddafi (Libya), Barre (Somalia), Savimbi (Angola), Doe and Taylor (Liberia) and Mandela and de Klerk (South Africa). He is the author of Intervening in Africa: Superpower Peacemaking in a Troubled Continent and The Mind of the African Strong Man:  Conversations with Dictators, Statesmen and Father Figures. Amb. Cohen is President of Cohen and Woods, which assists American corporations doing business in Africa. Amb. Cohen has been honored with the French Legion of Honor and the Belgian Order of Leopold II awards.