Patrick J. Linehan has been a practitioner of public diplomacy for thirty years.

He earned a B.A. in Political Science and Russian at Arizona State University (1974), and an M.A. in Political Science and Finnish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1977). He then spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Helsinki (1979-1980).

From 1981-1984, Mr. Linehan was a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and a Counselor Dean for the College of Letters and Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In 1984, he joined the U.S. Foreign Service, specializing in Public Diplomacy. In addition to postings in Washington DC, he has been posted overseas in Finland, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, and Canada. He speaks Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese.

Mr. Linehan is a member of the Career Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor. His principle assignments abroad have been as Press Counselor and Embassy Spokesman in Tokyo and Seoul, and as Minister Counselor for Public Affairs in Brasilia, Ottawa, and Seoul.

From August 2011 until August 2014, he served as Consul General at the U.S. Consulate General in Osaka-Kobe, Japan.