Steven Bitner began his service as the Consul General at U.S. Consulate General Erbil in August 2024. Prior to his arrival in Erbil, Mr. Bitner served as the Director of the State Department’s Office of Iraq Affairs in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs from 2022 to 2024. Previously, he served as the Counselor for Political and Economic Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark where he led our diplomatic engagement with the Kingdom of Denmark, a key NATO and Arctic ally. Prior to that posting, Mr. Bitner was the Counselor for Economic Affairs at U.S. Embassy Athens where he advanced U.S. support for Greece’s economic crisis and recovery and supported European energy security via the Southern Gas Corridor. Earlier in his career, Mr. Bitner served as the Deputy Chief of the Economic Section at U.S. Consulate General Jerusalem, contributing to the economic track of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. He has also served in the economic sections at U.S. Embassy San Jose and U.S. Embassy Warsaw. Mr. Bitner was posted in the Anbar and Babil provinces of Iraq as a Foreign Policy Advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority from 2003 to 2004. In Washington, he supported the Secretary of State both as a Watch Officer in the State Department’s Operations Center and as a Line Officer in the Executive Secretariat. Mr. Bitner is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service and the recipient of multiple Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards as well as the Department of State’s James Clement Dunn Award. Mr. Bitner earned a Master of Science from the National War College, where he was recognized as a distinguished graduate. He earned a BA in International Politics with a minor in Arabic from Brigham Young University, graduating summa cum laude. Mr. Bitner speaks Arabic, Spanish, Dutch, and Polish. He is married with four children.