Mark Gitenstein

Mark Gitenstein is a retired diplomat who served as the US Ambassador to Romania between 2009 and 2012. As Ambassador, he worked to strengthen relations with Romania on a variety of issues. The focus of his mandate was strengthening the rule of law and anti-corruption regimes in Romania. He also actively promoted deeper development of Romania’s equity markets. The US-Romanian Ballistic Missile Defense Agreement was negotiated and signed during his tenure. He is senior counsel in the Government and International Trade practice in Mayer Brown's Washington DC office and serves on the board of and is President of the Biden Foundation. Since the end of his mandate, he has returned to Romania four times a year as the member of one of the largest equities in Romania with a portfolio. He is very engaged with developments in Romania, Moldova and Ukraine and has traveled to Ukraine and Moldova on numerous occasions in the past eight years. His grandparents were Romanian and Moldovan.