Ian C. Kelly, the U.S. Representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), with the rank of Ambassador, arrived in Vienna on March 17, 2010. He was sworn in as ambassador on March 15, having been confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 10.
Ambassador Kelly is a Senior Foreign Service Officer. From May 2009 until his appointment as ambassador, he was the Spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State. Before coming on as Spokesman, Mr. Kelly was the Director of the Office of Russian Affairs in Washington, D.C., from August 2007 to April 2009. Before returning to Washington, he had served as Public Affairs Advisor at the U.S. Mission to NATO (2004-2007), Press Attaché at Embassy Rome (2000-2004) and Press Attaché at the American Embassy in Ankara (1997-2000). As Director of Democratic Initiatives to the Newly Independent States (NIS) at the State Department from 1994 to 1996, Mr. Kelly coordinated the activities of nearly a dozen federal agencies involved in democracy building in the former Soviet Union, and oversaw an annual budget of around $80 million.
Prior to assuming that assignment, Mr. Kelly was a regional public affairs officer for the NIS, a job that took him to all twelve former Soviet republics. His other assignments include Information Center Director in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (1990-92) and Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer in Leningrad and Moscow, U.S.S.R. (1987-90).
He has studied Italian, Serbo-Croatian and Turkish at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center of the State Department. He also speaks Russian. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Ambassador Kelly taught Russian at Columbia University, and received his doctorate there in Slavic Languages and Literatures in 1986. He also holds a B.A. from St. Olaf College and a M.A. from Northwestern University.
