Ambassador Richard (Rick) Holtzapple, a career diplomat with the U.S. Department of State, assumed his duties as the Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina on 14 August 2025.
Ambassador Holtzapple served as the United States Deputy Permanent Representative to NATO in Brussels, Belgium from 2021 to 2024. He also previously served as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires at the United States Embassy in Benin, overseeing a staff of 300 and implementing a quintupling of U.S. assistance to the country.
He has extensive diplomatic experience in Southeast Europe, beginning with his first diplomatic assignment (1992-1995) at the U.S. Embassy in Croatia, followed by service as Political Advisor to the United Nations Transitional Administration in Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES) in 1996-1997. He has been the National Democratic Institute’s Senior Program Manager for Kosovo and Montenegro and served twice as Director for Balkan Affairs for the National Security Council at the White House.
In Washington, among other assignments, he headed the State Department’s Office for OSCE and NATO Affairs, as well as its Office for European Union Relations, and served on the faculty of the National Defense University, teaching Economics and Strategic Thinking. Other overseas assignments have been in Kinshasa, Djibouti, and Paris.
Ambassador Holtzapple holds a Master of Arts degree with distinction in International Affairs and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C., and a Bachelor of Arts degree with distinction in International Relations from Stanford University in California. He speaks English, Croatian, and French. He is married with two adult children.
