Frank L. Lavin

Frank L. Lavin was the Under Secretary for the International Trade Administration from December 2005 to December 2006. Ambassador Lavin oversaw the International Trade Administration (ITA) which has over 2,500 employees. ITA is a division of the Department of Commerce.

Prior to being ITA Under Secretary, Frank Lavin was U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Singapore. He was nominated by President George Bush on July 18, 2001, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 1, 2001.

Prior to this, Ambassador Lavin worked as a banker and venture capitalist in Hong Kong and Singapore. He served in senior banking and management positions primarily within the multinational corporate group of Citibank and Bank of America. Previously, he served in a variety of senior policy and management positions in the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations.

In the George H. W. Bush administration, Lavin served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Asia and the Pacific, responsible for commercial policy, assisting companies with market access, and trade negotiations for all of East Asia, except Japan. During the Reagan administration, he served in the White House as Director of the Office of Political Affairs, assisting President Reagan with the management of domestic political issues, most notably with then-Vice President Bush's candidacy for President.

Lavin also served on the Reagan National Security Council Staff under National Security Advisers Carlucci and Powell as Deputy Executive Secretary. In this capacity, he was responsible for planning state visits and summit meetings, including the Reagan-Gorbachev Summit in Reykjavik. Previously, Lavin held staff positions at the White House and the U.S. Department of State.

Educated at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, Lavin earned a B.Sc.F.S. He went on to earn an M.Sc. in Chinese Language and History from Georgetown, an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from the School of Advanced International Relations at the Johns Hopkins University and an M.B.A. in Finance at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Lavin is a Lt. Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserves, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He is an Ohio native.