Deputy Chief of Mission
Adam Sterling, Chargé d'Affaires, U.S. Embassy, Baku
Deputy Chief of Mission Adam Sterling arrived in Baku in July 2010. He served from July 2010 until February 2011, and then again for the first eight months of 2012, as Chargé d’Affaires.
A career member of the State Department Foreign Service, Mr. Sterling served on loan to the White House as the Director for Central and Eastern European Affairs on the National Security Council staff from 2006 to 2009. He also served in Washington as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Europe (2005-06) and as desk officer in the Office of Central Asian Affairs (1995-97).
His overseas assignments have included tours as political officer in the U.S. embassies in Israel (2001-05) and Kazakhstan (1998-2001). He also served in political, administrative and consular assignments at the U.S. embassies in Belgium (1993-95) and Peru (1991-93).
Prior to joining the Foreign Service in 1990, Mr. Sterling worked in the liaison office of the Mayor of New York to the United Nations and consular corps. He earned a Master of Public Policy degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Bachelors degree from Grinnell College in Iowa. He speaks French, Spanish, Azerbaijani and Russian.
Mr. Sterling grew up in New York City and Lawrence, Kansas. He is married to Veerle Coignez, a native of Belgium and an international development consultant specializing in public health. They have a 14-year-old daughter, Elka, and a 12-year-old son, Bram.