He will replace Ambassador Karl Hofmann as executive secretary of the State Department.

During his stay in Dhaka, Thomas publicly spoke about the need for an improvement in human rights conditions highlighting the State Department's annual Country Report on Human Rights Practices as a key tool for moving the dialogue on human rights forward.

Thomas, who assumed his duties in Dhaka on August 11, 2003, would often speak in Bangla and received wide media coverage.

"I am very much thankful to the vibrant media in Bangladesh who gave me a lot of coverage and my mother in the USA is also thankful to you for that," Thomas told journalists recently at a press meet.

Ambassador Thomas also had his wife, Ericka O. Smith-Thomas, a vocalist, and his daughter, Casey Merie Eunice Thomas, in Dhaka.

He was vocal on the security and freedom of journalists, who faced intimidation and violence from criminals, political leaders, and religious extremists.

Thomas was critical about extra-judicial killings.

Deputy Chief of Mission Judith A Chammas will be the charge d affaires in the US embassy, for which a new ambassador is yet to be announced by the State Department.