Ambassador Jim Rosapepe was US Ambassador to Romania from 1998-2001, the years of NATO’s successful war in Kosovo to prevent “ethnic cleansing,” its first military action since its founding. Prior to his service as ambassador, he served as Investment Committee Chair of the Albanian American Enterprise Fund, founding Chair of the Maryland/Leningrad Oblast Sister State Committee, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, and Chair and CEO of the Patuxent Capital Group.
Since returning from Romania, he has served on boards of a variety of public and private investment funds focused on central and eastern Europe, Latin America, and China, as well as on the University System of Maryland Board of Regents.
With his wife, journalist Sheilah Kast, he is co-author of Dracula is Dead: Travels in Post-communist Romania (2014). In 2020, he was Chair of the National Leadership Committee of Italian Americans for Biden/Harris. He currently serves on the boards of the Council of American Ambassadors, Alianta (the NGO of Americans supporting the US/Romanian Strategic Partnership), the Italian American Policy Project, College Park Academy (a college prep public charter school), and other non profits. In Maryland, he is Vice Chair of the Senate Budget and Tax Committee.