Richard W. Graber has served as US Ambassador to the Czech Republic since September 23, 2006. Graber received his undergraduate degree from Duke University in 1978 and his law degree from Boston University in 1981.
From 1981 to 2006, Graber was an attorney with Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c., one of Wisconsin’s largest law firms. From 2004 to 2006, he served as president and chief executive officer of the firm. While at the firm, his practice focused on business transactions and government relations.
Graber is well connected within the Republican Party. He served as finance chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin from 1993 to 1999 and as secretary from 1991 to 1999. Graber was then elected chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin in June 1999. He was re-elected in 2001, 2003 and 2005 and was one of the longest serving state chairmen in the country. He served as chairman of the Wisconsin Delegation at the 2004 national convention in New York, was a delegate at the 2000 convention and was an alternate at the 1992 and 1996 conventions. From 2002 to 2006, Graber served as Wisconsin’s representative on the Republican National Committee’s Rules Committee.
He has also contributed
thousands of dollars to Republican campaigns, including $2,000 in 2003 to President George W. Bush’s re-election effort.