The Senior Foreign Service member, who will succeed Daniel J. Kritenbrink, is currently serving as the deputy assistant secretary for Japan and Korea in the State Department.

He has previously served in the U.S. embassies in Seoul, South Korea, Baghdad, Iraq, and Tokyo, Japan, and the State Department's Office of India Affairs and Office of Japanese Affairs.

From 2004 to 2007, he was political affairs counselor at the U.S. embassy in Hanoi.

He speaks Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese fluently.

Kritenbrink is set to become the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.