From August 2022 to May 2025, Ricklef Beutin served as Director General for Central Services of the German Foreign Office.

In February 2022, Ricklef Beutin was appointed Director General for Crisis Prevention, Stabilization, Peacebuilding and Humanitarian Assistance in the German Foreign Office.

Ricklef Beutin took over the position of Deputy Chief of Mission at the German Embassy in Washington, DC, in July 2019.

Prior to this, he was a Visiting Fellow in the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) in Washington.

Before coming to the United States in 2018, Ricklef Beutin served as Chief of Staff to the German Federal Foreign Minister. Between 2011 and 2017, he was Chief of Staff to several State Secretaries of the German Foreign Office.

From 2015 to 2016, Ricklef Beutin headed the division for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and served as deputy head of the Task Force for the German OSCE Chairmanship in 2016.

Previous positions in the German Foreign Office include Head of the Division for Parliamentary and Cabinet Affairs and Deputy Spokesman of the German Permanent Representation to the EU. Between 2005 and 2007, Ricklef Beutin was seconded to the EU Commission’s policy planning division Bureau of European Policy Advisors (BEPA) as a foreign policy analyst.

Ricklef Beutin holds an M.A. in international affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a degree in law from the University of Bonn, Germany.

He is married and has three daughters.