New US consul general in Thessaloniki named
A career member of the US Foreign Service, Jerrier (Jerry) Ismail, has been appointed the new US consul general in Thessaloniki.
Prior to his new posting, Ismail served as human rights chief in the International Organization’s (IO) Bureau, overseeing the US campaign for election to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), launching the first-ever US joint statement on Racial Justice, and coordinating US diplomatic outreach ahead of the UN’s vote to suspend Russia from the HRC.
Ismail’s prior Washington assignments include special assistant in the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations and senior Australia desk officer, planning and staffing the return of the strategic bilateral diplomacy and defense consultations after three years.
He previously served as Albania desk officer, advancing Euro-Atlantic integration, including Albania’s NATO accession.
His overseas assignments include political-economic counselor in Turkmenistan; deputy political-economic chief in Montenegro; economic officer in Kosovo; and human rights officer in the Czech Republic and in Saudi Arabia, where he began his career in 2004.
He earned his bachelor’s degree with honors in political science and economics from the State University of New York at Albany and a juris doctor from Emory University. He is fluent in Czech and Serbo-Croatian and proficient in Arabic, Greek, and Russian.
From the Hudson Valley region of New York State, he is joined in Greece by his wife Lejla, an international development expert, and their two children.
