Timothy A. Betts

Deputy Chief of Mission Timothy A. Betts

Timothy Alan Betts has served as Deputy Chief of Mission since August 2010.  He previously served as the Director of the State Department’s Office of Iraq Affairs from June 2008 to July 2009.

Mr. Betts is a member of the Senior Foreign Service of the United States with the rank of Career Counselor.  He began his career with the U.S. Department of State in 1984 and was assigned to Canberra, Australia, until June 1987, and then to Washington, where he served as Staff Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and then as a desk officer in the Office of Japan Affairs until July 1990.  After Japanese language training, he served as a political military officer in Tokyo from July 1992 to June 1995.  He was next assigned to Ankara, where he served first as Deputy Counselor for Political Military Affairs until 1998 and then as Deputy Political Counselor until July 2000.  He returned to Japan as Consul General in Naha, Okinawa in August 2000.  From July 2003 to July 2006, he served as Political Military Counselor in Ankara.  Back in Washington, he worked as the Director of Iraq Political Military Affairs in the State Department’s Office of Iraq Affairs until he became office director in July 2009.

Before joining the Foreign Service, Mr. Betts was a political risk underwriter with the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, first in New York City and later in San Francisco.  Earlier, he worked for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC – the U.S. Government’s investment insurance organization) and the City of Glendale, California.

He received an A.B. in 1978 from Occidental College and an M.A. in 1981 from The Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.  He is married to Helen Pratesi Betts.