Duke Buchan

Richard Duke Buchan III (born July 3, 1963) is an American financier, diplomat, farmer and philanthropist serving as the United States Ambassador to Morocco since 2025.

He is the founder and CEO of Hunter Global Investors, a private investment management firm. He served as the United States Ambassador to Spain and Andorra from 2017 to 2021, after which he became the finance chair of the Republican National Committee from 2022 to 2025.

Early life and education A native of North Carolina, Buchan was born on July 3, 1963, and grew up near Henderson on his family's tobacco and cattle farms. He received a BA in economics and Spanish from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) in 1985, and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1991.

At UNC-CH, Buchan was enrolled in the university's study abroad program in Latin America,

In 2001, Buchan founded Hunter Global Investors In 2007, Hunter had approximately US$1.5 billion assets under management. due to losses stemming from the European debt crisis, He converted Hunter Global Investors into a family office to manage his family's assets, and continues to manage two funds,

Diplomacy On November 2, 2017, Buchan was confirmed to his ambassadorships to Spain and Andorra by the United States Senate by voice vote, without any opposition from Democratic or Republican Senators. He was sworn in on December 11, 2017. As Ambassador to Spain, Buchan encouraged Spain to strengthen its contributions to NATO. He concentrated on investment, tax, and trade issues. In May 2019, Buchan and seven other ambassadors formed the first U.S. delegation to join the annual March of the Living education program. In November 2019, he traveled to Venezuela's border with Colombia to bring eyewitness attention to the humanitarian crisis caused by the regime of Nicolás Maduro and his primary ally, Cuba. "I saw pregnant Venezuelan women waiting to give birth in an extremely overcrowded maternity ward," Buchan wrote in the Spanish language newspaper El Mundo. "I saw very weak children and the elderly waiting to receive their only meal of the day at a soup kitchen. Children are dying from starvation. The elderly are without medication or care. This must stop now. ... It's time to close the door on tyrants." Buchan met interim Venezuelan President Juan Guaidó in Madrid to reiterate the United States' strong support for the National Assembly. The U.S. Embassy convinced Spanish oil company Repsol to wind down its operations in Venezuela in order to avoid sanctions.

Politics Buchan has served as a Republican National Committee State Victory Chair for both New York and Florida. He has donated extensively to the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, the Republican Governors Association, and to individuals from his home state of Florida such as Senator Marco Rubio and Senator Rick Scott. After first supporting former Governor Jeb Bush’s 2016 presidential campaign, and serving on the executive committee of Bush's Right to Rise PAC, Buchan and his wife Hannah became early financial supporters of Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

Philanthropy In 2011, Buchan established The Buchan Excellence Fund in UNC-CH's Department of Romance Languages and Literature, described by the university as "the largest single endowment at Carolina dedicated to support faculty, graduate students and undergraduates in Spanish languages, literature and culture." The fund has helped students and professors further their research on topics in Spanish culture and linguistics, and also enabled them to travel to Spain as well as other Spanish-speaking countries.

In December 2016, Buchan House, the new Arts and Sciences Foundation building at UNC-CH, opened after Buchan donated the money to purchase and renovate the old Chapel Hill Public Library to serve as the foundation's new headquarters.

Buchan was vice-chair of the UNC-CH Arts and Sciences Foundation Board of Trustees, is a member of the Chancellor's Philanthropic Council, and serves on the university's Campaign Planning Cabinet.

Personal life Buchan and his wife Hannah have three children. He owns farms in North Carolina and New York where he grows truffles and over 100 varieties of tomatoes and vegetables, and raises horses. The Buchans run a farm stand, develop new varieties of tomatoes, and donate their produce to charities. Buchan's primary residence is in Palm Beach, Florida and he has a horse farm in Upstate New York and an apartment on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

Buchan is fluent in Spanish, conversant in French, and has a basic knowledge of Italian, German and Catalan.