Brett H. McGurk

Brett H. McGurk is an American lawyer and diplomat who was appointed by President Barack Obama onOctober 2015 as Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL. He replaced General John R. Allen to whom he had been a deputy sinceSeptember 2014. He also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq and Iran, at the U.S. Department of State, and from October 2014 through January 2016 ledmonths of secret negotiations with Iran that led to a prisoner swap and release of four Americans from Evin Prison in Tehran, including the Washington Post journalist, Jason Rezaian. This assignment, among others, reinforced McGurks reputation as a doer, according to the NY Times. He earlier served under President George W. Bush as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Iraq and Afghanistan, and under President Obama as Special Advisor to the U.S. National Security Council and Senior Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq. An attorney by train

McGurk was born to Barry McGurk, an English professor, and Carol Ann Capobianco, an art teacher, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, onApril 1973. His family later moved to West Hartford Connecticut, where he graduated from Conard High School in 1991. McGurk received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Connecticut Honors Program in 1996, and his Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School in 1999. While at Columbia, he was a Senior Editor of the Columbia Law Review, a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and won the prize for best written brief in Columbia Law Schools Moot Court Honors Competition.

Source: Wikipedia