Mr. Jon Bensky
Speakers Bio:
No One's World Symposium
Mr. Jon Bensky
President and CEO of Pacific Northwest Advisors, Seattle
Jonathan Bensky is President and CEO of Pacific Northwest Advisors, based in Seattle. He retired in September 2008 from the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service after 34 years of promoting US exports and providing assistance, advice and counsel to American businesses overseas. At the time of his retirement he was a Senior Officer with the rank of Minister - Counselor.
For twenty years he served as Senior Commercial Officer in the American Embassies in Kuala Lumpur (1986 – 1990), Manila (1990 – 1992), New Delhi (1992 – 1997), Singapore (1997 – 2002) and, prior to his retirement, in the US Mission to the European Union in Brussels (2003 – 2008). As Senior Commercial Officer he was in charge of the US Department of Commerce office and staff in each of those embassies.
He began his career in 1967 as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal for two years, working in rural food production. He joined the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer in 1974 and served in Vancouver, Chennai and Colombo, Sri Lanka. In 1981 he transferred to the Commerce Department's newly created Commercial Service, where he worked from 1982 to 1985 as Chief of Employment Management in Washington headquarters.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, Jon has a BA in Economics from Oakland University in Michigan and an MA in Economics from the University of Hawaii's East West Center. His languages have included Nepali, Hindi, Tamil, Bahasa Malaysia and French. He is married to Sandra Bensky, who is from Vancouver, BC. They have a son, Brian (born in Chennai, India), and a daughter, Miriam (born in Colombo, Sri Lanka), both of whom graduated from the University of
Washington.
Jon currently is a volunteer in a number of international business and trade related organizations and activities, including Advisory Council, Seattle Trade Development Alliance, Advisory Committee, Foster School CIBER, Washington District Export Council, Seattle Asia Business Forum and the Consular Association of Washington. He is also a member of the American Foreign Service Association.