Joe Tordella has taken up his post as Consul General of the United States in Florence, assuming the role in August 2026 after serving as Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia.
As Consul General, Tordella heads the US diplomatic mission in Florence. The consulate represents the United States in Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna and provides consular services to US citizens in its district, alongside its diplomatic and public affairs work.
Tordella is a career member of the US Foreign Service and joined the diplomatic corps in 2007. Before his assignment in Florence, he was the second-ranking official at the US Embassy in Bolivia.
Earlier in his career, he led communications on US State Department policies and programmes concerning the Western Hemisphere and served as a special assistant to the senior official overseeing US public diplomacy.
His overseas experience includes assignments at US embassies in Barbados, Israel, Libya, Moldova, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia and Saudi Arabia. Earlier biographical information published by the American Foreign Service Association also records his public diplomacy assignments in Moscow, Islamabad, Tripoli, Manila, Tel Aviv and Riyadh.
Before joining the Foreign Service, Tordella worked as a strategy consultant for IBM and Booz Allen Hamilton. He holds a graduate degree from the London School of Economics and an undergraduate degree from American University.
In addition to English, Tordella speaks Italian, Arabic, Russian and Spanish.
The US Consulate General in Florence is one of the United States’ diplomatic posts in Italy, alongside the embassy in Rome and consulates general in Milan and Naples. Its presence in Florence dates back to the early 19th century, making US diplomatic representation in the Tuscan capital one of the longest-standing American diplomatic relationships in Italy.
(Cover photo via Wikipedia)
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