Senior Representative

Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Energy Resources at US Department of State

Speaker

Stephen Banks joined the Bureau of Energy Resources in summer 2024 as director for Europe, the Western Hemisphere, and Africa. He became Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Diplomacy in January 2025. He is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. Most recently he served as Political Minister-Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, and before that as Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Asmara, Eritrea.

He previously served as the political and economic counselor in Pristina, Kosovo, following his assignment as deputy director for South Central Europe in the Department of State. At the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York, he coordinated UN Security Council engagement on Sudan, South Sudan, and Somalia, as well as special committee (C-34) negotiations on UN peacekeeping policy. He served one year in Iraq, first as the Embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team (ePRT) Leader in Fallujah, Anbar Province, then as Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) Leader for Maysan Province. Previous U.S. Embassy assignments included Georgetown, Guyana; Sofia, Bulgaria; and Yerevan, Armenia. His other Washington assignments included the State Department’s 24-hour Operations Center and serving as country desk officer for Azerbaijan and Tajikistan.

Before joining the Foreign Service, he worked as a U.S. Department of Commerce international trade specialist and he served eight years in the U.S. Navy Reserve.