Ambassador
About James R. Keith
James R. Keith was sworn in as the United States Ambassador to Malaysia on July 24, 2007. Ambassador Keith came to Kuala Lumpur from Washington, D.C. where he held several positions including Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for China, Mongolia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau at the U.S. Department of State. Prior to becoming Deputy Assistant Secretary, Ambassador Keith served numerous tours of duty in Washington working on Asian Affairs, and has also served as U.S. Consul General in Hong Kong and at U.S. Embassies in Beijing, Jakarta and Seoul. In addition to his Foreign Service postings, Ambassador Keith was a member of the National Security Council under President Bush in the early 1990s and President Clinton in the late 1990s.
Mr. Keith was born in Virginia and his family comes from Georgia and Florida. While he was growing up he lived in Tokyo, Jakarta, Hong Kong, and Taipei. He joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1980 after graduating with a B.A. degree in English from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. He has studied Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Malaysian and Indonesian.
Mr. Keith is married to the former Jan Carter; he and his wife have six children.