James R. Keith was born in Virginia and earned a B.A. degree in English from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. While growing up, he lived in Tokyo, Jakarta, Hong Kong, and Taipei. He joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1980. Keith served numerous tours of duty in Washington, DC, working on Asian Affairs, and has also served as U.S. Consul General in Hong Kong and at U.S. Embassies in Beijing, Jakarta and Seoul. In addition to his Foreign Service postings, Ambassador Keith was a member of the National Security Council under President George H.W. Bush in the early 1990s and President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s. Immediately prior to becoming ambassador to Malaysia, Keith held several positions including Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for China, Mongolia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau at the State Department. Keith has studied Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Malaysian and Indonesian.