Michael Kozak
Michael Kozak | |
|---|---|
| Senior Bureau Official, Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs | |
| Assumed office January 20, 2025 | |
| President | Donald J. Trump |
| Preceded by | Brian A. Nichols, Assistant Secretary |
| Senior Official for Global Criminal Justice | |
| In office January 20, 2021 – January 1, 2023 | |
| President | Joe Biden |
| Preceded by | Morse Tan |
| Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs | |
| In office September 13, 2019 – January 20, 2021 | |
| President | Donald Trump |
| Preceded by | Kimberly Breier |
| Succeeded by | Julie J. Chung |
| Senior Bureau Official for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor | |
| In office September 5, 2017 – September 12, 2019 | |
| President | Donald Trump |
| Preceded by | Tom Malinowski |
| Succeeded by | Robert Destro |
| Acting United States Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating anti-Semitism | |
| In office October 5, 2012 – May 20, 2013 | |
| President | Barack Obama |
| Preceded by | Hannah Rosenthal |
| Succeeded by | Ira Forman |
| United States Ambassador to Belarus | |
| In office September 15, 2000 – August 8, 2003 | |
| President | Bill Clinton George W. Bush |
| Preceded by | Daniel V. Speckhard |
| Succeeded by | George A. Krol |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 18, 1946 Pasadena, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | UC Berkeley (A.B.) Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley (J.D.) |
| Occupation | Attorney, diplomat |
Michael G. Kozak (born September 18, 1946) is an American diplomat in the United States Department of State who is serving as the Senior Bureau Official for Western Hemisphere Affairs. He had served Acting Assistant Secretary from 2019 to 2021. He previously served as U.S. Ambassador to Belarus between 2000 and 2003 and chief of mission at the United States Interests Section in Havana between 1996 and 1999, and was a nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador in 1991. He achieved a measure of prominence in the 1980s for his attempts to negotiate with Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega to leave power.
Kozak is a civil service employee of the U.S. State Department and charter member of the Senior Executive Service. He has been described as a problem solver with practical solutions, who is "not prone to ideological diatribes." He has also been called "an outgoing, let's roll-up-our-sleeves kind of guy with a square boxer's body and face" and "pugnacious."