Brett H. McGurk

Brett H. McGurk (born April 20, 1973) is an American diplomat, attorney, and academic who served in senior national security positions under presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, and is currently the Deputy Assistant to President Joe Biden and the National Security Council Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, in the Biden administration. He was the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL. He was appointed to this post by Obama in October 2015 and was retained in that role by the Trump administration until 2018. McGurk had been slated to leave the post in mid-February 2019, but announced his resignation in December following Trump's decision to withdraw troops from Syria. McGurk also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq and Iran and from October 2014 through January 2016 led secret negotiations with Iran that led to a prisoner swap and release of four Americans from Iran. He earlier served under President George W. Bush as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Iraq and Afghanistan, and under President Barack Obama as a Senior Advisor to the National Security Council and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq. Early life and education McGurk was born to Barry McGurk, an English professor, and Carol Ann Capobianco, an art teacher, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 20, 1973. His family later moved to West Hartford, Connecticut, where he graduated from Conard High School in 1991. McGurk received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Connecticut Honors Program in 1996, and his Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School in 1999. While at Columbia, he was a Senior Editor of the Columbia Law Review and a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. He is a member of the Theta Chapter of the Zeta Psi Fraternity.