Christopher Barks

Christopher Barks

Director, Western Hemisphere Office

Federal Aviation Administration, USA

Christopher Barks is the Director of the Western Hemisphere region in the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of International Affairs based in the U.S. Embassy in Panama; he leads FAA Senior Representatives in Miami, Panama, and Brazil and a staff in Washington to coordinate all FAA international activities with partners in the Americas and the Caribbean.
Prior to joining the Western Hemisphere office, Mr. Barks served from 2008-2011 as the FAA Senior Representative in Brussels, responsible for FAA relationships with EU Institutions and agencies, and with Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. From 2005-2008, he was the FAA Senior Representative to Northern Europe, based at the U.S. Embassy in London. Mr. Barks joined the FAA in 1997, holding positions in the Office of International Aviation and in the Flight Standards Service.
Mr. Barks received a Master of Arts in German and European Studies from Georgetown University in 1997 and Bachelors of Arts degrees in International Relations and German Studies from the University of Minnesota in 1993. He is fluent in Spanish (having spent 11 years in Ecuador and Bolivia), proficient in German and gets by in French. He was invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 2010.