Chad Houghton is the Chief of Staff at CARE, where he supports CARE’s President and CEO and executive leadership team in advancing the organization’s global strategy, strengthening partnerships, and ensuring effective coordination across CARE’s worldwide operations.
Prior to joining CARE, Chad served as a career diplomat with more than 20 years of experience across the public and private sectors in international relations, economic and public diplomacy, communications, and program management. Most recently, he served as the U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), where he led multilateral negotiations to decarbonize the global shipping sector, curb illicit shadow fleet activity, and build an international coalition to address Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.
Chad previously served as Chief Spokesperson and Managing Director of External Affairs for Secretary John Kerry in his role as the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate. In that position, he led the Biden administration’s international climate communications strategy and helped shape global messaging to raise ambition and accelerate collective action to address the climate crisis.
Earlier in his diplomatic career, Chad served as Deputy Spokesperson at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, where he received the inaugural Ameri Prize for developing an AI-based disinformation tracking system to counter malign Russian influence in Eastern Europe. He also held diplomatic assignments at U.S. embassies in Mexico, Myanmar, Poland, the United Kingdom, and Washington, D.C.
Before joining the U.S. Department of State, Chad was part of the senior leadership team at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), where he led Technology and Digital Media and helped establish SHRM’s Asia Pacific headquarters in India.