And if there’s a top people person of them all, it’s Hector Chapungu, this year’s State Department-wide FSN of the Year. Chapungu, American Citizens Services assistant at the U.S. Embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe, won the award for the Bureau of African Affairs. (Each geographic bureau chooses a winner.) A six-year veteran of the post, he was cited for “outstanding work assisting, informing and protecting American citizens in Zimbabwe during a politically volatile period.”

In an interview, Chapungu noted the tense U.S. relationship with his homeland’s government, but pointed to the customer service experience he gained earlier with DHL worldwide courier service as a help in handling potentially touchy matters, such as getting packages cleared through Zimbabwean Customs.

Chapungu, who is married and has two children, said his work involves building networks of host nation contacts, while helping American visitors be aware of the nation’s restrictions; they cannot take photos anywhere they want, for instance. His contacts in law enforcement help him gain permission to visit incarcerated Americans; his contacts in tourism and emergency services help if a tourist is injured while on safari; and his private sector contacts allow the embassy to communicate via the firms’ radios if the national phone network is down, he explained.

“You must have people on the ground who can be your eyes,” he observed, adding that a big challenge is regularly having to cultivate new contacts, due to continual turnover among Zimbabwean officials.

Being a people person, he said, “comes to me naturally. People management skills are very important.” He’s also well educated, with a bachelor’s degree in politics and administration and a certificate in, of course, customer service.

By Ed Warner, deputy editor, State Magazine

If there’s a factor that unites the six winners of Foreign Service National (FSN) of the Year award for 2013, beyond their excellent performance, it’s that they’re “people persons”: workers who, in addition to having technical training, can motivate colleagues and gain cooperation from sometimes recalcitrant host governments.

Hector Chapungu

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Another factor the 2013 FSNs of the Year have in common is their high levels of education. Hamad is an electrical engineer, as is Baltazar E. Enalpe Jr., FSN of the Year for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Enalpe, who also has a degree in mechanical engineering, joined the U.S. Embassy in Manila in 1989 as a maintenance dispatcher. He’s now the chief engineer and senior Locally Employed Staff member in the facilities management office. There, he supervises 94 direct-hire employees and more than 100 contractors who do everything from cleaning and grounds maintenance to keeping the air conditioning and power running. He was cited for leadership on “long-term planning initiatives and systems improvements that substantially contributed to key mission goals in the Philippines.”

While engineers are sometimes faulted as being more comfortable with things than with people, Enalpe is a genuine people person and a successful negotiator. In one case, he helped convince the Philippine government to build a new pedestrian bridge, the Philippine-American Friendship Bridge, at a cost of 15 million Philippine pesos, so that the visa applicants could safely cross a busy street to reach the embassy. In another instance, he got traffic lights installed at a point where embassy employees needed to make U-turns on a busy street to enter a newly constructed parking lot at the embassy.

He also got the government of Pasay City to convert a vacant lot adjacent to the embassy annex and U.S. Veterans Affairs clinic into dedicated embassy parking. In that case, he said, success came partly because of contacts—the city engineer is a neighbor—and partly because he couched the matter as a veterans’ issue in a nation that still recalls how the United States liberated it from the Japanese in World War II. “You have to have some charismatic way of convincing people to help your office,” he observed.

Ever the learner, Enalpe is now pursuing an MBA.

Amr Hamad

Baltazar E. Enalpe Jr.

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Another 2013 FSN of the Year who is both a people person and a believer in education is Fereena Qiyam, winner for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs. Afghanistan can be a challenging place for a young, single woman to pursue education, but Qiyam studied at Kabul University and graduated in 2010. A protocol assistant at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul since 2008, Qiyam recently received a Special Immigrant Visa that she’ll use to study for a master’s degree in the United States. Ultimately, she wants to serve the Department in a higher capacity, but still specializing in Afghanistan and the region.

Qiyam’s people skills are especially useful when working with the Afghan government on such protocol matters as ensuring the protection of U.S. officials. Although four Americans at post hold the title of ambassador, the government of Afghanistan at one time allowed only the actual chief of mission to drive onto its presidential compound. The others had to make a potentially dangerous walk.

When the acting chargé d’affaires, a woman, sought the same protection, Qiyam interceded with initially resistant Afghan presidential security officials, one of whom “told me to go wash dishes,” seeing that as appropriate woman’s work, she recalled. Qiyam persevered, obtaining vehicular access for the chargé and the other ambassador-ranked officials—no small feat in a country which is so conscious of security and protocol. Her award says it was given “for outstanding work ethic, excellent judgment, and tireless dedication to protocol on behalf of Embassy Kabul and the U.S. government.”

Another FSN of the Year who works in a challenging environment is Amr Hamad. Hamad, the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs’ winner, is an economic specialist working for the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem but based in the Gaza Strip. Gaza faces numerous economic and humanitarian challenges, including chronic electricity shortages, high unemployment and restrictions on trade.

He said a big challenge is “changing the picture of the U.S. government in the eyes of Palestinians in Gaza.”

Hamad was cited for his work in Gaza, particularly for providing “timely and thoughtful input on the economic and humanitarian conditions.” A three-year mission veteran, Hamad was formerly general director of the Palestinian Federation of Industries. He is married and has a 9-year-old daughter.

Hamad’s colleagues characterize him as “fearless.” Although outside of the area when the fighting started, Hamad voluntarily re-entered Gaza during Israel’s 2012 Operation Pillar of Defense while the conflict was ongoing.

Fereena Qiyam

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Zoran Djordjevic

Alfredo Pennycook

The winner for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, Zoran Djordjevic of the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, makes a striking impression with his fluent, American-accented English, the result of a childhood spent in New York City. (He remains a Jets fan.)

And like the other winners, Djordjevic has superb people skills, a necessity for a procurement supervisor who must negotiate with local and U.S.-based suppliers on prices and delivery times. He buys whatever the post needs, from computers to $120,000 worth of all-terrain vehicles for use by Serbia’s border police.

Djordjevic started in the embassy mailroom in 1987 and worked his way up to procurement supervisor through what he termed “dogged pursuit of goals” and constant study of such contracting rules as the Federal Acquisition Regulations. “Before you go into a [purchase] process, you have to research and learn as much as you can about what you’re buying, to ensure you’re getting the best deal for the government,” explained Djordjevic, who is married and has a daughter, now in medical school.

His award citation notes that he saved the U.S. government more than $2 million through “contracting expertise, hard work and innovation in procurement.”

Beating Djordjevic’s 26-year tenure at post—by one year—is Alfredo Pennycook, FSN of the Year for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. Nearly all of Pennycook’s 27-year career at the U.S. Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia, was with USAID, in such roles as general services officer. In March 2013, he joined the State Department as a property supervisor, which requires him to keep track of such government-owned materials as computers and desks.

Here, too, people skills come to the fore. Pennycook notes how he negotiated with Bolivian Customs in that nation’s “very tough” political climate. Once, he said, Customs was intentionally delaying release of the personal effects of staff members from several embassies. In response, he was selected to lead a group of staff members from several embassies in developing strategies to approach Customs representatives and solve paperwork problems. Pennycook communicated the group’s concerns to Bolivia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Customs officials, and brought Customs officials’ attention to problems such as the years-long blockage on the importation of vehicles and project goods. That restriction had held up the work of USAID, the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs and the embassy. His efforts contributed to a legal ruling in the embassy’s favor that saved the U.S. government $1 million in penalties.

His award citation notes his “exceptional initiative and outstanding collaboration with Bolivian officials and diplomatic community colleagues towards achieving Mission goals in Customs matters.”

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