International Trade Group festive dinner 2024

Mrs. Laurie Farris is the Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy, London having arrived in August 2023. Her previous assignment was as the Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China from August 2021 to May 2023. Prior to her assignment to China, she was the acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Asia where she led the U.S. Commercial Service in fourteen countries across Asia, and a team of trade experts in headquarters. She is a twenty-seven-year veteran of the Foreign Service.

From 2016 to 2019, Mrs. Farris was the Director of the Office of Digital Initiatives of Global Markets, International Trade Administration. From 2013 to 2016, she served as the Executive Director for Asia. Mrs. Farris has also served at the U.S. Embassy in Brussels, Belgium, Abu Dhabi, UAE, Amman, Jordan, Toulouse France and Paris France, as well as U.S. assignments in Chicago and Washington DC.

Mrs. Farris holds a B.A. with honors from the University of California at Berkeley, including one year at the Institut des Etudes Politiques, Université de Grenoble, France. She also holds a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School, Tufts University. Mrs. Farris is married and has two sons.