Ambassador Jess Baily

Jess L. Baily was confirmed by the Senate to be the U.S. Ambassador to Macedonia in December 2014 and served in that capacity until March 2019. He previously served as Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, after arriving there in July 2011 to serve as Deputy Chief of Mission. Before that, he served in the State Department as Director of the Office of Southern European Affairs where he managed bilateral relations with Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus.

A career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, Mr. Baily joined the Foreign Service in 1985 and has served in public affairs positions in Bangladesh, Senegal, Thailand, Turkey, and the Netherlands. From 2007 to 2008, he was in Erbil, Iraq as the senior U.S. government civilian representative in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. In Washington, he directed the State Department’s Foreign Press Center from 2005-2007 and coordinated U.S. policy on political issues before the UN Security Council and UN General Assembly as Director of the Office of UN Political Affairs from 2008 to 2010.

A native of Cincinnati, Mr. Baily has a B.A. from Yale University and an M.A. in European History from Columbia University. He speaks French, Turkish, and Thai.