In August 1999, Victor Jackovich assumed a newly created State Department position of Associate Director at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch, Germany.

Prior to this, Jackovich worked in Washington on a variety of U.S. government programs dealing with Southeast Europe and headed the State Department's office for Southeast Europe Initiatives (SEI).

Ambassador Jackovich's most recent postings abroad were as U.S. Ambassador to Slovenia (1995-1998), U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995) and Chief of the U.S. Mission to Moldova (1992). He opened the American Embassy in Bosnia (1994) and served there during the war.

Other assignments have included: U.S. Cultural Attache in Moscow, Russia (1988-1990), U.S. Press Attache in Nairobi, Kenya (1983-1986) and U.S. Cultural Attache in Bucharest, Romania (1980-1983).

Ambassador Jackovich was born on April 24, 1948 in Des Moines, Iowa. He graduated from Indiana University and attained an M.A. there in 1971. He specialized in East European, Russian and Balkan affairs and maintains fluency in several languages of these regions.

Among his many awards for exceptional service are the Distinguished Presidential Award (1994) for service in the Balkans and the American Bar Association's Max Kampelman Award (1998) for "advancing the rule of law in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union." In addition, he holds the Golden Eagle Award (1995), which is the national medal of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Serb Civic Society Award (1999). In 2000, he was accorded an honorary degree from the University of Sarajevo and declared an "honorary citizen of Sarajevo."

Ambassador Jackovich is married and has one son.