John McCaslin's Biography  

John McCaslin

John McCaslin is currently serving a 3-year tour as Senior Commercial Officer in Warsaw, Poland.  He just completed a 4-year tour as Deputy Senior Commercial Officer in Moscow, Russia.  Prior to his assignment to Moscow, he was the Principal Commercial Officer in Munich, Germany from 1997 to 2001.  He is one of the few Commercial Officers to have spent considerable time working both in the domestic field and overseas. From 1990 to 1997 he was a Trade Specialist and Director of the Cincinnati Export Assistance Center. During that time he opened a branch office in Columbus, Ohio.

McCaslin joined the Commercial Service in 1990 after serving as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State for five years.  He was an Economic Officer in Korea, spending time at the U.S. Consulate in Pusan and the Embassy in Seoul.  After Korea he worked in Washington at the Economic and Business Affairs Bureau negotiating bilateral trade agreements in the textile sector and then he served briefly on the staff of the Deputy Secretary of State focusing on Eastern Europe.  This was during 1989-90, when these formerly Communist states were beginning their transitions to democracy and free market economies.  Soon thereafter he transferred to the Commercial Service.

Prior to becoming a Foreign Service Officer with the State Department, he was a social science instructor at a private, independent day school in Dayton, Ohio from 1981 to 1985.

A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, he obtained a B.A. in Russian Studies and German from Colgate University in upstate New York and an M.A. in International Relations from Columbia University in New York City.  He is married to Constance Plattenburg and has three sons.