The Principal Deputy High Representative, Donald S. Hays, a US diplomat, took up his duties with the OHR in July 2001. Between 1999 and 2001 he was the US Representative to the United Nations for UN Management and Reform, with ambassadorial rank. Previously he had served in the State Department as the Director of the Office of Management Policy and Planning and as the Executive Director of the European Affairs Bureau. He has also been posted to US embassies in Bonn, Islamabad, Dakar, Freetown (Sierra Leone), and Saigon. Ambassador Hays graduated in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara.