Harold W. Geisel, Acting Inspector General

Harold W. Geisel assumed duty as Deputy Inspector General for the Department of State and the Broadcasting Board of Governors on June 2, 2008.  He will serve concurrently as Acting Inspector General.

Ambassador Geisel has more than 20 years' experience in senior management with the Department of State. He joined the Department in 1972, completing tours as management or administrative officer in Brussels, Oslo, Bern, and Bamako, and as Consul General in Durban, South Africa. From 1986 to 1993, he served as management counselor at U.S. Embassies in Rome, Bonn, and Moscow. He returned to the Department in 1993 as Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Management, where he supervised the creation of a worldwide process for allocating information technology resources. In 1994, he was assigned as Acting Inspector General of the State Department, pending appointment of a new Inspector General. He held the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Information Management, from 1995 to 1996, during which he was responsible for some 2,000 employees and directed the development of the Department's first IT strategic plan. He returned abroad in 1996, serving as Ambassador to Mauritius until 1999, and as a senior negotiator, leading discussions with foreign governments on base access and defense cost burden-sharing from 1999-2000.

Following retirement from the Foreign Service, Ambassador Geisel in 2001 assumed the position of Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Logistics Management, responsible for worldwide procurement, transportation, diplomatic courier services, and other logistics operations for the Department and its overseas missions. He served from 2002 to 2003 as Head of Delegation for negotiations with the People's Republic of China on the construction of new embassies in Beijing and Washington, DC.  

Mr. Geisel received his bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins University and his master's degree in Finance from the University of Virginia; and completed Italian and French language training at the Department's National Foreign Affairs Training Center.  He serves on the board of directors of the State Department Federal Credit Union.