He has previously served as Deputy Chief of Mission of US Embassy Canberra, Australia, and US Embassy Baku, Azerbaijan; as Director of the Office of South Central European Affairs; and as Special Assistant for East Asian and Pacific Affairs in the US Department of State. He arrived in Tokyo on June 30, 2014, to assume his duties as Deputy Chief of Mission, following his assignment as Foreign Policy Advisor for the Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa. He has lived and worked in Asia for more than 18 years. He received a Group Superior Honor Award from the Department of State for serving on the first Embassy team that entered Kobe in February 1995 to assist after the Great Hanshin earthquake.