Deputy Chief of Mission

Dan Piccuta

Deputy Chief of Mission Dan Piccuta

Dan Piccuta took up his duties as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China in May 2007.  A member of the State Department’s Senior Foreign Service, Dan most recently served on the Foreign Service Board of Examiners, selecting candidates for entry into the Foreign Service.  He was Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Luxembourg.  Earlier he served as Deputy Executive Director of the Executive Secretariat, providing logistical and management support to Secretaries of State and other Principals of the State Department.  He was twice assigned to State’s 24-hour crisis management office (the “Operations Center”).  He held executive management positions at the U.S. Embassies in Belgrade and Beijing and at the Consulate General in Milan, Italy.  Dan also served as Consul for American Citizen Services in Beijing and as Political and Science Officer in Guangzhou.

In private law practice in Los Angeles prior to entering the Foreign Service in 1986, Dan handled corporate, investment and commercial matters for foreign and domestic clients and was Vice President and Assistant Counsel at Standard Chartered Bank’s California subsidiary, Union Bank.

A member of the California Bar, Dan received his JD in 1980 from the University of Southern California and a B.A. in History from St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.  He completed further studies in Chinese language and law at East China College of Law in Shanghai, and at Fu Jen and Soochow Universities in Taiwan.  His foreign languages are Chinese and Italian and he is proficient in French, Spanish and Serbian.  He is married to Christina Bezaire-Piccuta of Los Angeles.  Their daughter, Erin, resides in San Francisco.