John L Withers II was confirmed as the US Ambassador to Albania since June 28, 2007. Withers is the son of former US Agency for International Development Director, John L. Withers, Sr. and spent much of his childhood overseas in Laos, Thailand, Burma, Korea, Ethiopia and Kenya.

 

He received a BA from Harvard University in history, an MA in East Asian Studies from McGill University and a PhD from Yale University in modern Chinese history. Withers has also completed graduate-level research at Nanjing University in China and has studied Chinese, Russian, Dutch, French and Latvian.

 

Withers served at the US Embassy at The Hague as a political officer from 1985 to 1986; in the Office of Chinese Affairs as desk officer from 1986 to 1988; and as a political officer in the US Embassy in Lagos, Nigeria from 1988 to 1990. From 1991 to 1993, Withers served as political officer at the US Embassy in Moscow and in the Office of Northern European Affairs on the Ireland and Iceland desks for a brief time in 1993.

 

Withers served as special assistant to the Office of the Deputy Secretary from 1993 to 1996; as Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Riga, Latvia, from 1997 to 2000; and as director of the Office of North Central European Affairs from 2001 to 2002. From 2003 to 2005, he was director of the Operations Center at the State Department.