Leon Skarshinski is the Senior Commercial Officer (SCO) for the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Foreign Commercial Service (FCS) at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine. He arrived to Kyiv in the end of August 2025.
Prior to his Ukraine appointment, Leon was the SCO at the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In this role, he led all trade promotion, commercial diplomacy, advocacy and U.S. investment initiatives, including strategic programming with other agencies and partners. His previous tour was as Deputy Senior Commercial Officer in Lima, Peru, overseeing all industry sector initiatives and service provision. Prior to that, he served in Beijing, China, where he managed a number of industry sectors, including automobiles, agricultural machinery, franchising, media and education.
Before joining the FCS, Leon served in the Trade Compliance Center of the U.S. Department of Commerce (2004 – 2006) with work centering on the identification and resolution of foreign trade barriers.
From 2007-2015 Leon was a consultant in the field of international development. He spent three years embedded in the Botswana Ministry of Trade, serving as a Senior Trade Advisor, involved in trade negotiations (covering SADC, SACU, COMESA and the EU), policy development and private sector dialogue. His next private sector assignment was in Nigeria managing a $4 million trade, transport and customs reform program funded by USAID. Subsequent assignments brought him throughout Africa, Asia, Europe and Haiti, implementing trade promotion /policy/ facilitation projects for the World Bank, DFID and USAID, including work centered on ASEAN, APEC, and the AU. Leon managed a USAID project portfolio valued at over $120 million when he opted to return to federal service.
While in Ukraine, Leon plays a leading role in strengthening trade and economic ties between the United States and Ukraine.