Ken Gross, the Ambassador to Tajikistan, is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. Prior to his nomination, Mr. Gross served as a Career Development Officer for senior-level officers in the Human Resources Bureau and as director of the Middle East Partnership Initiative Office in the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau.
Mr. Gross’s most recent overseas postings have been in Iraq. He was Principal Officer at the Regional Embassy Office in Basrah, where his office represented the United States in the four southern provinces, and he returned to Iraq for a short period of time at the Embassy’s request to be the director of the newly formed Office of Provincial Affairs, the office overseeing the Provincial Reconstruction Teams.
Mr. Gross previously served in Tajikistan as the Deputy Chief of Mission from 2002-2004. His other overseas postings include Haiti, Malaysia, Nepal, and Germany. In the Department of State, Mr. Gross worked in the Bureau of Economic, Energy and Business Affairs as an aviation negotiator, in the Bureau of European Affairs as desk officer for Austria, and in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research as a current intelligence analyst.
Mr. Gross joined the Foreign Service in 1987. He received a B.A. from Auburn University, a J.D. from the University of Georgia School of Law, and a M.S. in National Security Strategy from the National War College. He speaks Tajiki, German, and French.
