Christopher Ashby is a native of Dallas, Texas. He graduated from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and the University of Texas' Graduate School of Business. He has attended executive education programs at Harvard Business School and the Sloan School at MIT.

In 1973 he joined Chemical Bank in New York. He was posted four years in Jakarta, Indonesia, as country manager and president of a joint venture merchant bank, and 10 years in Madrid, Spain, where he was country manager of Spain and Portugal.

In 1989, he returned to New York, where he ran the bank's business with the United Nations and the New York diplomatic community. After mergers with Manufacturers Hanover and Chase Manhattan, he managed all of the bank's retail branches in midtown Manhattan. His last assignment was manager of a start-up retail investment business.

In 1997, Mr. Ashby was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Uruguay, stationed in Montevideo. He was directly involved in efforts to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas. When his tour in Uruguay was over in 2001, he became president international of NIC Computer Company based in Palo Alto, California. In 2004 he joined Smith Barney as a financial advisor.

He was president of the Houston World Affairs Council and the National Advisory Board of the Small Business Administration. He is on the board of the Houston Community College Foundation. He was a captain in the Marine Corps from 1969 to 1973, including one tour as an infantry platoon commander in Viet Nam. Mr. Ashby is married to Amy Ashby, and has four children and four grandchildren.