The man once deemed ?one of Silicon Valley?s best young CEOs? by the Wall Street Journal is settling in as Bermuda?s new US Consul General after two weeks on the job.

First-time diplomat Gregory Slayton, 46, brings an easygoing air to the office wearing an open collared blue dress shirt for his media interview rather than the typical suit worn by most of his predecessors. He has however removed the ?Silicon Valley for Bush? baseball cap which reportedly made him well-known as the ?baseball cap guy? throughout the past two US presidential campaigns.

Mr. Slayton came to Bermuda via a long route which has seen him live on every continent in the world. He studied economics at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and, as a Fulbright Scholar, received a Masters in Asian Studies from the University of the Philippines.

His academic focus on economic development led him to spend a number of years in Asia then Africa where he managed micro-credit and economic development programmes for the poor and disadvantaged. It is work that he might still be doing today, had he not been evacuated by medic for acute viral hepatitis.

?The good news is that I lived and there were some questions about that for awhile but the bad news was that I couldn?t go back to the third world for at least five years so I went to Harvard business school which is something I always intended to do anyway,? he said.

He earned an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School and by the early 1990s he followed the wave of people to Silicon Valley where he became an entrepreneur and venture capitalist.

From December 1997 to December 2002, he led ClickAction, Inc., formerly a publicly traded company that developed email marketing automation solutions before being sold to Info USA. Just before becoming Consul General, he was managing director of Slayton Capital, a private venture capital firm headquartered in Virginia with offices in California.

?Where one goes professionally is somewhat a matter of what the economic tides are at the time.

?Back in the late 90s obviously all tides were flowing out to Silicon Valley and an awful lot of people ended up out there. We were very fortunate to be there at the right place at the right time,? he said

His interest in politics began in college when he was a Democrat and strong supporter of Jimmy Carter and others. Later in life he switched sides and now has many friends in the Bush administration after serving as co-chairman of the Silicon Valley Bush 2000 fundraising committee.

Mr. Slayton met with Premier Alex Scott last week and said that he hopes the positive meeting with the ?wonderful gentleman? will be just the beginning of a rich and productive dialogue.

He sees his role as US Consul General as a multi-faceted one with the first priority to take care of the estimated 8,000 American citizens living on the Island.

Another equally important role is to make sure that there is productive dialogue between the host country and the US government.

?The relationship with Bermuda has been so strong and so productive for so long with of course some intersperse moments of difficulty and that is the reality for any country.

?I just hope that we can continue to build and learn from each other,? Mr Slayton said adding that he hopes to build positive and mutually productive bridges between the two jurisdictions.

?Bermuda has done phenomenally well as a country with very few natural resources and its economic policies have been very productive. I need to learn more, but the whole area of race relations is something that my country has not been as strong at as all of us would like to be.?

International diplomacy and international relations have always been a big part of what he had always hoped to do.

?I have lived, not just visited, on every continent of the world.

?I speak five languages, my wife speaks four languages so it has been part and parcel of our lives for a long time and I?m delighted to be here in Bermuda

?It is a fantastic opportunity for us,? he said.

Mr. Slayton remains active in international development and speaks French, Spanish, Wolof and Tagalog.

He occasionally co-teaches at the Harvard Business School and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

His wife Marina has dual masters in Education from Columbia University.

Her speciality is adult literacy however with four children aged 4-14, she plans to spend her time in Bermuda working at home.