The Honorable Victor H. Ashe

Victor Ashe served as U.S. Ambassador to Poland from 2004 to 2007. He began his political career in the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1968, at the age of 23, and then served in the State Senate for nine years. In 1987 Mr. Ashe was elected mayor of Knoxville, serving an unprecedented sixteen years, and in 1995 he was elected president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The importance of historic preservation was a theme of his mayoral tenure, and he currently serves on the board of trustees of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Five U.S. presidents, beginning with President Ronald Reagan, have named Mr. Ashe to different federal positions. These include service on the board of Fanny Mae from 2001 to 2004, the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (Bush and Clinton administrations), and the Broadcasting Board of Governors from 2010 through 2013.

Ambassador Ashe is a graduate of Yale University (B.A. History, 1967) and the University Of Tennessee College Of Law (1974). In 2004 he was a Fellow at Harvard University’s JFK Institute of Politics.