HAInews 2023/02 Alumnus John R. Crosby new US Consul General

US alumnus John R. Crosby has been the new US Consul General for Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia at the US Consulate General in Leipzig since July 2023. The experienced employee of the US State Department studied German language and literature at Heidelberg University in the summer semester of 1991.

Before taking up his post in Leipzig, John R. Crosby headed the New York Programme Division of the US Department of State's Bureau of International Visitor Programs. In Washington D.C., he has previously held positions as Deputy Director of the State Department's Office of Global Criminal Justice, Conflict Advisor for the Bureau of Caucasus Affairs and Regional Conflict, and as a member of the Executive Secretariat staff under Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice. He has also worked abroad several times: as head of the political-economic department in Munich and in Milan, as team leader for regional public relations in Kabul, as political-military affairs officer in Ljubljana and as consular officer in Mumbai.

Before joining the Foreign Service, John R. Crosby worked for a corporate communications agency in Tokyo and was a business law attorney in Houston. He already knows Saxony-Anhalt, having spent two summers there teaching English and giving chamber music concerts as a pianist. The internationally experienced and polyglot alumnus holds a bachelor's degree in history from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Virginia School of Law. In addition to Ruperto Carola, he was also a Fulbright Scholar studying abroad in Munich; he speaks German and Italian, as well as some Slovenian and Dari, which is spoken in Afghanistan.