Margot Carrington began her tour as Principal Officer, U.S. Consulate Fukuoka, in August 2007. From 2003-2007, she served as Deputy Cultural Affairs Officer and Program Development Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. She previously served in Japan from 1994-1998, and studied Japanese at FSI Yokohama before becoming Deputy Director of the Tokyo American Center. Margot then served as Cultural Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur from 1999 to 2003. She joined the Public Diplomacy cone of the State Department (then known as USIA) in 1993, and briefly served in Washington as Acting Country Affairs Officer for the Philippines, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam before beginning Japanese language training.

Margot graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Florida with a Master’s Degree in International Relations. Her Bachelor’s degree is in Political Science and French. Before joining the Foreign Service she worked as a marketing manager for online information industry leaders DIALOG and LEXIS/NEXIS. She grew up in a Foreign Service family and lived in France, Belgium, Spain, Kenya, Lebanon, Greece, Pakistan, Germany and the Philippines. She and her husband, William A. Carrington, have a son, Liam, who was born in Japan in 1998, and a daughter, Nathalie Sophia, who was born in 2002 in her mother’s hometown of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Margot enjoys traveling, reading and yoga.