Ambassador (ret) Marc J. Sievers served as U.S. Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman from January 2016 through November 2019. Ambassador Sievers and his embassy team advanced U.S. interests during a turbulent period characterized by war in neighboring Yemen, sharp shifts in U.S. policy toward Iran, and frictions among Gulf states.

Prior to Oman, Ambassador Sievers served with distinction in several of the Near East region’s most complex and challenging posts, including Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires in Cairo from September 2011 to August 2014 and Political Minister-Counselor in Baghdad from August 2010 to August 2011. Earlier, he held a range of posts abroad including Counselor for Political Affairs in Tel Aviv (2006-2010), and Deputy Chief of Mission in Algiers (2003 – 2006). In 2004, he was seconded to the Department of Defense as senior adviser to Iraq’s transitional Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He also served as Political Counselor in Riyadh, Deputy Political Counselor in Ankara, and Political Officer in Rabat and in Cairo. In the State Department, he had tours in the Bureau of Near East Affairs and the Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

After his retirement from the State Department, Ambassador Sievers became a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in 2020-21. He then moved to Abu Dhabi, where he was the founding director of the American Jewish Committee’s office, the Sidney Lerner Center for Arab-Jewish Understanding (2021-2026). In that capacity, he worked with governments, civil society, think tanks, businesses, and media to promote the deepening of the Abraham Accords.

Ambassador Sievers received a BA from the University of Utah in 1978 and the MIA degree from Columbia University in 1980. His government awards include the State Department’s Superior Honor and Meritorious Honor awards, the Intelligence Community’s Agency Shield and Exceptional Collector awards, and the American Foreign Service Association’s Sinclaire Language Award for his study of Arabic.