Facts: - namedata: hillary rodham clinton - president: barack obama - blankname: secretary - order: 17th - office: united states deputy secretary of state - name: william j. burns - image: ambassadorburns.jpg - birth place: fort bragg , north carolina , u.s. - alma mater: la salle university st john 's college , oxford Based on these bullet points, write a short biography describing the life of william joseph burns .
william joseph burns -lrb- born april 11 , 1956 -rrb- retired from the u.s. foreign service on november 3 , 2014 , after a distinguished 33-year diplomatic career .he holds the highest rank in the foreign service , career ambassador , and is only the second serving diplomat in history to become deputy secretary .he is currently the president of the carnegie endowment for international peace , the oldest international affairs think tank in the united states .