This is historical material, "frozen in time." The web site is no longer updated and links to external web sites and some internal pages will not work.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release July 25, 1997

STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY

National Security Advisor Samuel Berger announced today the appointment of William Harrison Courtney as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasian Affairs, effective August 25. Ambassador Courtney will succeed Steve Pifer.

William Courtney has been Ambassador to Georgia since 1995. Prior to that he was Ambassador to Kazakstan, co-chair of the U.S. delegation on Safety, Security and Dismantlement of Nuclear Weapons, and head of the U.S. delegation, with rank of Ambassador, to the implementing commissions established by the Threshold Test Ban and Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaties. Earlier, he served in the Nuclear and Space Talks in Geneva and at the American Embassies in Moscow and Brasilia. He was an international affairs fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations and since 1972 has been a career Foreign Service Officer.

A native of West Virginia, Ambassador Courtney is a graduate of West Virginia University and received a Ph.D. in economics from Brown University. He and his wife, Paula Feeney, have two young children.

# # #