Former U.S. special envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker is set to testify before House committees Thursday about his involvement in U.S. President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. He is expected to speak behind closed doors to the Intelligence, Oversight and Reform, and Foreign Affairs committees.
Volker has served as a special envoy to Ukraine since he was appointed to the job by then-secretary of state Rex Tillerson.
Volker was in public service for more than 20 years, starting as an analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency in 1986.
After that followed time in the foreign service, serving overseas in London, Brussels and Budapest. He eventually ended up as special assistant to the U.S. special envoy for Bosnia negotiations, Richard Holbrooke.
Volker also served as a legislative fellow for Sen. John McCain for two years.
He became the first secretary of the U.S. mission to NATO in 1998. He worked in different capacities in NATO until 2005. His work there included being in charge of U.S. preparations for the summit in Prague in 2002 and the summit of NATO members in Istanbul in 2004.
Volker later became deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. He served in that position until President George W. Bush named him U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO in July 2008, where he served until May 2009.
He entered the private sector as an independent director at the Wall Street Fund, and worked at other financial groups. He also worked at McLarty Associates, a global consulting firm, and BGR Group, a lobbying firm and investment bank.
When Arizona State University launched the McCain Institute for International Leadership in 2012, Volker was its first executive director, a position he still holds.
He returned to public life in 2017 when Tillerson appointed him special envoy to Ukraine.
