Mark Gitenstein arrived in Brussels in January 2022 to take up the position of US ambassador to the European Union.
Gitenstein recently retired from the law offices of Mayer Brown LLP, where he had served as partner and counsel. Gitenstein served as US ambassador to Romania from 2009– to 2012, and began his career with 17 years of service in the US Senate on the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees. He worked for Senator Joe Biden for 13 of those 17 years.
Gitenstein has spent much of the last decade working in Central and Eastern Europe, especially Romania. Since 2009 he has, either as ambassador or as counsel to NGOs and commercial clients, focused on preserving and fortifying democracy by ensuring transparency in equity markets, fighting corruption, and strengthening the rule of law.
In addition to his service with Mr. Biden in the Senate, he co-chaired the senator’s transition to the vice presidency in 2008 and assisted his transition to the presidency in 2020.
Gitenstein earned a bachelor’s degree from Duke University and a JD from Georgetown Law School. He was awarded the Star of Romania, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by the president of Romania in 2012. In 1993, he was also awarded the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award for his book Matters of Principle about his role as chief counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee during its consideration of Robert Bork’s nomination as associate justice of the US Supreme Court.