Michael McCarry joined the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange as its executive director in October 1994. Prior to joining the Alliance, he spent 18 years with the U.S. Information Agency as a Foreign Service Officer. He served as U.S. Cultural Attaché in Beijing in the years immediately following the Tiananmen Square events of 1989, and in Thailand in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. He speaks Mandarin Chinese and Thai. He also served in Washington as staff director in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and as chief of Advising and Student Services. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, McCarry worked as a Congressional aide and as a journalist.