He joined the Department in 1972, completing tours as management or administrative officer in Brussels, Oslo, Bern, and Bamako, and as Consul General in Durban, South Africa. From 1986 to 1993, he served as management counselor at U.S. Embassies in Rome, Bonn, and Moscow. He returned to the Department in 1993 as Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Management, where he supervised the creation of a worldwide process for allocating information technology resources. In 1994, he was assigned as Acting Inspector General of the State Department, pending appointment of a new Inspector General. He held the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Information Management, from 1995 to 1996