USAID new Mission Director for Jordan takes oath

Acting Administrator Henrietta Fore presided at the event and administered the oath.

As Mission Director for Jordan, Knott will direct programs on economic growth, health, water resources, education, and democracy and governance. Jordan also has a large cash transfer program, through which USAID helps Jordan pay down its debt in return for the Government of Jordan providing an equal amount of money to support development programs in their own country. In 2006, U.S. assistance to the country, combined with cash transfer assistance, totaled more than $297 million.

Knott joined USAID in 1988 as an Attorney Advisor in Washington, D.C., covering programs throughout Africa. He was first assigned overseas in 1990 as a Regional Legal Officer at USAID's Regional Economic Development Services Office in Cote d'Ivoire, where he provided counsel to seven USAID Missions in West and Central Africa. After leaving Cote d'Ivoire in 1994, he served in USAID's Washington, D.C. headquarters, as a Regional Legal Officer, followed by an assignment in Lima, Peru, where he provided legal services to USAID Missions in Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. In August 1999, he became the Deputy Mission Director in Ghana, and in 2002, he assumed the role of Mission Director in Mozambique.

Knott was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and grew up in Chicago. He attended Yale University and graduated with a double major in Political Economy and African Studies. He received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1985. Subsequently, he worked as a trial lawyer with the U.S. Department of Justice and in private practice in Washington, D.C., before joining USAID. He is married to Tine Johannesen Knott.