Ambassador Ken Howery

Ken served as the U.S. Ambassador to Sweden from 2019 – 2021. During his tenure, Ken promoted joint U.S. and Swedish interests across a variety of policy areas. One of Ken’s top priorities as Ambassador was to deepen economic ties between the U.S. and Sweden, with a focus on opportunities created by technology and innovation. This included work to promote secure 5G communications, an effort which culminated in Sweden banning the use of 5G products that the U.S Department of State assessed to be a security risk to democracies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ken also led the U.S. Embassy’s efforts to assist the Swedish health industry with navigating supply chain challenges, helping companies to accelerate production of products that were in high demand for COVID-19 patients in the U.S. and around the world. Ken worked closely with the Swedish academic community as Ambassador, engaging with Sweden’s Innovation Agency and other top scientific research institutes. Ken also focused on strengthening U.S. security and defense ties with Sweden, including through engaging with Swedish officials on military cooperation in the Arctic region, increasing the interoperability of U.S. and Swedish military systems, and advocating for increases in Swedish defense spending.

Prior to his role as Ambassador, Ken was a co-founder and Partner at Founders Fund. He has been an early investor in some of the world’s leading technology companies, including SpaceX, AirBnB, Palantir Technologies, Facebook, Neuralink, Quantcast, Compass, Cedar, Citizen, and Stripe. He also is a co-founder and was the first CFO at PayPal. Ken serves a Founding Advisor at Kiva.org, is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, and is a member and former member of the Board of Directors of The Explorers Club.