Robert H. Tuttle

Former First Minister of Wales Rhodri Morgan meets U.S. Ambassador Robert Tuttle on October 7, 2005, in Cardiff.

A California native, he was nominated to be ambassador by U.S. President George W. Bush. He had raised more than $200,000 for Bush's 2004 presidential campaign and inauguration ceremony.[3] Both Tuttle and his predecessor William Stamps Farish III were both wealthy private citizens with personal and financial ties to the Bush family.[4]

Tuttle is perhaps most widely known for his (and the U.S. Embassy's) refusal to pay the London congestion charge.[5] The embassy has claimed that the charge is a form of taxation, and the diplomats and their staff are therefore exempt under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Transport for London, which is headed by the Mayor of London, considers the charge to be a fee for service rather than a tax, and points out that other embassies in London pay it, and US embassies in other cities pay similar road charges. The embassy says that the decision to stop paying was made before Tuttle became Ambassador, although the embassy only ceased payment after he took up the post.

In March 2006, the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, said that Tuttle was trying to "skive out of [paying] like some chiselling little crook".[6] A survey published in 2007 showed that the United States owed £1.5 million in outstanding congestion charge payments. Livingstone again chided Tuttle, and called him a "venal little crook" for his refusal to pay.[7] Actor Tom Conti, founder of campaign group London Motorists Action Group (LMAG), however, said: "I think the American ambassador's stance on this is very reasoned, I think he makes his case very well. Obviously, when you have got a parking ticket then you've done something wrong - so you should pay up. But in terms of the congestion charge I can see how some of these diplomats feel".[8]

Tuttle is a partner in the Tuttle-Click Automotive Group based in Irvine, California, and the Jim Click Automotive Group based out of Tucson, Arizona. He currently serves as the chairman of the board of directors of the Pacific Council on International Policy.[9] He is a trustee of the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress in Washington, D.C.[10]