Jim Wilson

Jim Wilson entered the U.S. Foreign Service with the State Department in 1976. His initial assignments were as a Reporting Officer at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in 1976 and as Economic/Commercial Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Lilongwe, Malawi (1977-1979). He transferred to the Commerce Department’s Commercial Service in 1980 during an assignment as Commercial Attaché in Buenos Aires, Argentina (1979-82). In 1982-83 Jim worked at the Commerce Department Export Assistance Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Subsequent overseas positions with Commerce included tours at American Embassies as Senior Commercial Officer in Nairobi, Kenya (1984-88), as Commercial Attaché in Madrid, Spain (1988-93) and service as the Senior Commercial Officer in Ankara, Turkey (1994-97) and in Buenos Aires, Argentina (2000-2004). In Washington, D.C., Mr. Wilson worked on a detail as Director, South American Affairs at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (1983-84). He returned to Washington in July 1997 to work for a year as the Regional Director for Europe in Commerce’s Office of International Operations. From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Wilson served as Director of the Office of Energy, Infrastructure and Industrial Machinery at the Commerce Department headquarters. Jim assumed his current position as the Senior Commercial Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Spain in August 2004. He is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor. Mr. Wilson graduated from Swarthmore College with a degree in International Relations and Economics. He was born and raised in suburban Philadelphia. Jim and his wife Vicky have two grown children, Christina and Andrew. He is an avid, though infrequent, golfer.