Meet Antony Blinken United States Secretary of State
Antony John Blinken is an American government official and diplomat who has served as the 71st Secretary of State of the United States since January 26, 2021.
Blinken was born in Yonkers, New York, on April 16, 1962, to Jewish parents Judith (Frehm) and Donald M. Blinken, who went on to serve as the United States Ambassador to Hungary.
Hungarian Jews were his maternal grandparents. Alan Blinken, Blinken’s uncle, was the American ambassador to Belgium.
Maurice Henry Blinken, his paternal grandfather, was an early supporter of Israel who researched its economic viability, and Meir Blinken, a Yiddish writer, was his great-grandfather.
Over the course of two decades, Blinken has held prominent foreign policy posts in two governments. From 1994 to 2001, he was a member of the National Security Council’s (NSC) staff.
Blinken served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Strategic Planning, as well as NSC Senior Director for Speechwriting, from 1994 until 1998.
He served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European and Canadian Affairs from 1999 to 2001.
With Michèle Flournoy, Sergio Aguirre, and Nitin Chadda, Blinken co-founded WestExec Advisors, a political strategy consulting firm, in 2017.
Google’s Jigsaw, Israeli artificial-intelligence firm Windward, surveillance drone manufacturer Shield AI, which just received a $7.2 million deal with the Air Force, and “Fortune 100 type” companies are among WestExec’s clients.
Blinken is a devout follower of the Jewish religion. Blinken and Evan Ryan married in 2002 at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Washington, D.C., in an interfaith ceremony officiated by a rabbi and a priest.
They are the parents of two kids. Blinken is a native French speaker who speaks without an accent. Under the nickname ABlinken, he plays guitar and has three songs on Spotify.
