Gary Linden, a career Senior Foreign Service Officer, serves as the Mission Director for USAID in the Kyrgyz Republic. 

Before joining the Mission, Mr. Linden served in Washington, DC in multiple senior leadership positions in USAID’s Bureau for Food Security, including Acting Senior Deputy Assistant to the Administrator and Director of the Office of Country Strategy and Implementation.

Prior to that experience, he served as the Deputy Mission Director for USAID’s Mission in Ethiopia from 2013 to 2015. 

From 2012 to 2013, Mr. Linden served as Acting Deputy Assistant to the Administrator in USAID's Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and Environment (E3). Before that he served as Director for the Economic Growth and Economic Policy offices in the E3 Bureau, where he led the Agency’s efforts to reintroduce cost-benefit analysis to USAID Missions worldwide.

Mr. Linden also served as USAID Country Director in Moldova, Office Director for Economic Growth in both the Central Asia and Ukraine Regional Missions, and Mission Economist in Nicaragua.

Mr. Linden received a bachelor’s degree from Pomona College in International Relations and a master of arts in Latin American Studies and a Ph.D. in Economics from The University of Texas at Austin. He speaks Spanish and Russian.