New Consul General Preeti V. Shah has arrived in NRW

Preeti V. Shah assumed duty as the Consul General for the U.S. Consulate General in Düsseldorf, covering the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in August of 2024.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Ms. Shah grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, and she is the daughter of Indian immigrants to the United States. She attended Claremont McKenna College in Southern California where she earned a dual bachelor’s degree in Economics and International Relations.

Ms. Shah joined the Foreign Service in 2004 and has previously served in Nicaragua, Turkey, Afghanistan, Mexico and Indonesia. In addition, throughout her over twenty years as a Foreign Service Officer, she worked in several offices in Washington, DC, including most recently as the Deputy Director of Public Diplomacy training at the Foreign Service Institute. She also served as a foreign policy advisor for Senator Richard Durbin and worked in the Western Hemisphere Affairs bureau on migration issues as well as Haiti’s recovery after the 2010 earthquake.

Ms. Shah speaks German and Spanish, though her Indonesian and Turkish are rusty. She is joined in Germany by her husband who also works for the State Department, their two children, and a half poodle, half Bernese Mountain dog named Athena.

Preeti V. Shah is excited to meet you and learn more about the NRW-USA year from you!