Ambassador Timothy A. Chorba

Following a decade of service as President of the Council of American Ambassadors, Ambassador Chorba was elected as the Council's Chairman in 2025. He served as Ambassador to Singapore from 1994 to 1998.

Prior to his ambassadorial appointment, Ambassador Chorba was a partner in the Patton Boggs law firm in Washington, DC, which he joined in 1977 and rejoined upon his return to the United States. He retired from the firm in February, 2015. Ambassador Chorba engaged in international corporate legal practice, including government relations, public policy issues, commercial transactions, trade issues, anti-counterfeiting, regulatory matters, litigation and financing, serving American and European multinational enterprises doing business in North America, Western Europe, South America and Asia.

Ambassador Chorba graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1968 from Georgetown University with a B.A. degree in Government. In 1968-1969, he was a Fulbright Scholar in International Law and International Relations at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. He obtained his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1972, and he was admitted to the New York Bar in 1973. He served as an Armor officer and Judge Advocate General officer in the US Army Reserve from 1968 to 1986, attaining the rank of Major.

He was Legislative Counsel to Congressman Jonathan Bingham of New York from 1972 to 1973. In 1973, he participated in a Congressional Staff exchange program with the German Bundestag in Bonn, sponsored by the Conference Group on German Politics. From 1974 to 1977, he was a corporate attorney with Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett in New York.

Ambassador Chorba was born September 23, 1946, in Yonkers, New York and raised in New York City, where he graduated from Regis High School. Now widowed, he was married to Ruth Wimer, a partner with Ernst and Young and subsequently with the Winston & Strawn law firm. They have three sons - Timothy, Jr., a graduate of Georgetown University’s College of Arts and Sciences, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco, graduated Georgetown University’s joint J.D./MBA program, and practices law in New York City; Christian, a graduate of Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, graduated Boston College Law School, clerked for Chief Justice Paul Reiber of the Supreme Court of Vermont, and now practices law in Burlington; and William, a graduate of Georgetown’s College of Arts and Sciences, served with AmeriCorps in Denver, graduated from Michigan Law School, and is clerking with the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis.

Ambassador Chorba is fluent in German and conversant in French.