Marc Grossman was appointed the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan on February 22, 2011. Following his retirement from the Department of State in 2005, he was a Vice Chairman of the Cohen Group.
Ambassador Grossman served for nearly thirty years as a Foreign Service Officer, beginning with his first assignment as a Junior Officer in Pakistan, where he served from 1977 to 1979, and ending as the Department’s third ranking official, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, a position he held from 2001 to 2005.
Ambassador Grossman served as the Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources from 2000 to 2001 and as Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs from 1997 to 2000. He was U.S. Ambassador to Turkey from 1994 to 1997. He had previously served as the embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission from 1989 to 1992.
Grossman was the Executive Secretary of the State Department and Special Assistant to the Secretary of State from 1993 to 1994. He also served as the Deputy Director of the Private Office of Lord Carrington, the NATO Secretary-General, from 1983 to 1986.
A native of Los Angeles, California, Ambassador Grossman graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and later received an MSc. in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science. As a result of his outstanding service to his country, he is the recipient of numerous honors and awards. He attained the Foreign Service’s highest rank in 2004, when the President appointed him to the rank of Career Ambassador; he received the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award the following year.
