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Ian Kelly
United States Ambassador to Georgia
In office September 17, 2015 – March 24, 2018
President	Barack Obama Donald Trump
Deputy	Nicholas Berliner Elizabeth Rood
Preceded by	Richard Norland
Succeeded by	Kelly Degnan
United States Ambassador to the OSCE
In office March 11, 2010 – September 9, 2013
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Julie Finley
Succeeded by	Dan Baer
20th Spokesperson for the United States Department of State
In office May 11, 2009 – March 11, 2010
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Sean McCormack
Succeeded by	Philip J. Crowley
Personal details
Born	1953 (age 70–71) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Alma mater	St. Olaf College (BA) Northwestern University (MA) Columbia University (PhD)

Ian Crawford Kelly (born 1953) is an American retired Foreign Service Officer and Ambassador (ret.) currently serving as the Ambassador in Residence at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He is an American former statesman and senior foreign service officer who last served as the United States Ambassador to Georgia, from 2015 to 2018. He previously served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) from 2010 to 2013. Prior to his ambassadorship, Kelly held a variety of high-level roles at the U.S. State Department, including serving as the department spokesman under Secretary Hillary Clinton.

Career

Before beginning his career at the State Department, Kelly taught Russian at Columbia University, where he also received his doctorate in Slavic Languages and Literatures in 1986. He also holds a B.A. from St. Olaf College and an M.A. from Northwestern University. After joining the Foreign Service, he served in a variety of positions, including the Director of the Information Center in Belgrade, Yugoslavia from 1990 to 1992, and Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer in Leningrad and Moscow, U.S.S.R. from 1987 to 1990. In these capacities, Kelly was involved in setting up embassies across the former Soviet Republics, a task that took him to all 15 newly independent states. He has studied Italian, Serbo-Croatian and Turkish at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center of the State Department.

In 1994, Kelly was appointed Director of Democratic Initiatives to the Newly Independent States (NIS) at the State Department where he coordinated the activities of nearly a dozen federal agencies involved in democracy building in the former Soviet Union, and oversaw an annual budget of around $80 million. He later served as Press Attaché at the American Embassy in Ankara (1997-2000), Press Attaché at Embassy Rome (2000-2004), and Public Affairs Advisor at the U.S. Mission to NATO (2004-2007).

In August 2007, Kelly was appointed Director of the Office of Russian Affairs in Washington D.C., where he was responsible for managing the development and implementation of U.S. policy towards Russia. In May 2009, he was appointed as a senior spokesperson for the State Department in Washington.

Ambassadorships

On November 30, 2009, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Kelly to be U.S. Representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, with the rank of Ambassador. His nomination was presented to the Senate by U.S. Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission), who praised Kelly's deep experience serving throughout the former Soviet Union, and emphasized the critical role of the OSCE in the current geopolitical climate. Kelly was confirmed by the Senate on March 10, 2010, by a voice vote with bipartisan support.

Kelly's tenure as Ambassador coincided with several major geopolitical events for OSCE countries, including pro-democracy protests in Russia, a controversial constitutional amendment in Kazakhstan extending the tenure of President Nursultan Nazarbayev through 2020, and ethnic riots in Kyrgyzstan in 2010. In 2012–2013, Kelly was the U.S. Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, the diplomatic mechanism set up to resolve the conflict in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Kelly was replaced by Daniel Baer on September 10, 2013.

President Obama nominated Kelly to succeed Richard Norland as the U.S. Ambassador to Georgia on March 12, 2015. He was confirmed by the Senate on June 25, 2015, and sworn in on September 11, 2015. He retired both as ambassador and from the foreign service in March, 2018.

Academic career

After retirement from diplomatic service, Ambassador Kelly began teaching in the Departments of International Studies and Slavic Literatures at Northwestern University in April 2018.

References

1. "Deputy Chief of Mission". Retrieved November 7, 2017.
2. ^ Kim, Community Contributor Grace. "Former Ambassador Ian Kelly to Speak at Lake Forest Academy". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2019-11-15. {{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)
3. "CARDIN INTRODUCES MARYLAND'S IAN KELLY, NOMINEE FOR AMBASSADOR TO OSCE". 2 February 2010. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016.
4. "PN1219 - Nomination of Ian C. Kelly for Department of State, 111th Congress (2009-2010)". www.congress.gov. 2010-03-10. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
5. "Ambassador Ian Kelly named US acting co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group". www.tert.am. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
6. Földi, Máté (February 22, 2018). "US Ambassador Ian Kelly to Retire At The End of March". GeorgiaToday.ge. Archived from the original on April 10, 2018. Retrieved April 10, 2018.

External links

• Appearances on C-SPAN

• 1953 births
• Columbia University alumni
• Columbia University faculty
• Living people
• Northwestern University alumni
• St. Olaf College alumni
• United States Department of State officials
• Ambassadors of the United States to Georgia (country)
• United States Department of State spokespeople
• United States Foreign Service personnel