September 18, 2014

Tom Garrett joined IRI in November 1994. He currently serves as vice president for global programs. Prior to being named vice president, Garrett served as IRI’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa from 2004 to 2009.

Garrett first served as IRI’s resident country director for Ukraine; he later oversaw programs in Belarus and Moldova as well as in Ukraine. While in Ukraine, his focus was on political party building, local government training and women and youth in politics. Garrett also directed a training program for staff and members of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament.

He left the Ukraine program in January 2000, to serve as IRI’s resident advisor to the Ikh Hural, Mongolia’s parliament, based in Ulaanbaatar. While there, Garrett trained the three parliamentary parties in campaign techniques for the July 2000 elections. In addition to his Mongolia assignments, Garrett conducted training for IRI programs in Cambodia.

In October 2000, Garrett moved to Jakarta as IRI’s resident program director. There, he oversaw a program of political party building, public opinion research and support to local government. Garrett served in this position through the Indonesian elections of 2004. While posted to Indonesia, he conducted program assessment missions for IRI in Fiji, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and provided training on campaign finance reform in Timor-Leste.

Over the past 20 years, Garrett has worked on election observation missions in Afghanistan, Albania, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Mali, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, the Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tunisia and Ukraine.