The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2022 49 Daniel Crocker, a retired Senior Foreign Commercial Service officer, is the John and Ruth McGee Direc- tor of the Dean Rusk International Studies Program at Davidson College. He has more than 20 years of experience promoting and defending U.S. economic security through assignments in Washington, Europe and Latin America. Prior to his diplomatic career, he worked in engineering management positions at Accel and Sequoia Capital, as well as at Benchmark-funded tech startups. He also worked in manufacturing and in oil and gas exploration in the United States and Africa. He is currently a member of the FSJ Editorial Board. Foreign Service transitions can involve more than moving from post to post or evacuating. And there are lessons in that, too. BY DAN I E L CROCKER M y relationship with the Foreign Service has been uneven and unusual, consisting of transitions from post to post, as well as transitions in and out and back into the Service. At the least, I suspect, my story is amusing as a quick view of a quirky career path. But it may also hold useful lessons for others. So here goes. I’ve just started a new role heading up the Dean Rusk Inter- national Studies Program at Davidson College in North Carolina. I’m excited about the opportunity to spend more time teaching, mentoring and helping connect young intellectually curious minds with new opportunities. On a personal note, it also brings me within 10 miles of my mother, who has brain cancer. But it is an abrupt shift frommy previous work. Over the past year I was with Veracity Worldwide, a boutique advisory firm that has helped multinational corporations, NGOs, private equity firms and sovereign wealth funds maximize their investment decisions in developing markets for the last 15 years. Veracity’s clients care immensely about two things: first, that their investments conform to environmental, social and gover- nance norms; and second, that their decisions are congruent with U.S. and European Union geopolitical interests. FOCUS ON FS TRANSITIONS ANDNOWFOR SOMETHING Completely Different ...