Jeffrey Zaiser

Consul of the United States Kirkuk - Iraq

Jeffrey Zaiser joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1988, served his first tour as a Vice Consul in Seoul and Pusan, South Korea.  After two years as a China Desk officer in Washington, he studied Mandarin Chinese in Washington and Taipei before assignment as Economic Officer to Guangzhou, China (1994-96).  Mr. Zaiser then studied Vietnamese and served as Economic Officer in Hanoi, Vietnam from 1997 to 2000.  He then moved to Bangkok for one year as Regional Environmental Officer before returning to Taiwan as Deputy Chief of the American Institute in Taiwan’s Economic Section.  From 2005-2008, he was head of the Political Unit at the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong.  Moving to Beijing, he spent two years as Economic Officer and Financial Attaché (2008-10), followed by two years as head of the Political External Unit.  Mr. Zaiser arrived in Iraq on June 24, 2012 as Deputy Principal Officer and Economic Section Chief at the U.S. Consulate Kirkuk.  He became Kirkuk Principal Officer on February 18, 2013.

Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Mr. Pounds worked as an intelligence analyst and speech writer at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.  He studied economics as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia and as a graduate student at the University of Stockholm and the American University of Washington, D.C.  He is married to Lien-Khanh Ho with whom he has two children.