Matt Andersen
Matt Andersen
District Director
U.S. Department of Commerce
Matt Andersen has served as Director of the U.S. Commerce Department’s San Diego & Imperial Export Assistance Center since August 1997. Prior to this assignment, Matt served as the Director of the USDOC San Francisco Export Assistance Center. Matt has a strong record of establishing public-private partnerships to advance trade and economic development. In 2004, he received the award of “National Manager of the Year” for the U.S. Commercial Service. In 2003, he was recognized with the “International Business Leader of the Year” by the WORLD TRADE CENTER San Diego. For 2010-11, Matt served as Vice President of the San Diego Federal Executive Association, representing over 130,000 federal employees in the San Diego region.
In Washington D.C., he served as Program Manager for USDOC’s Technology and Aerospace trade development offices in the International Trade Administration (ITA), functioning as Chief of Staff to support 70 trade professionals. He worked in the Office of the Secretary of Commerce for three years, coordinating projects in the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and also the National Telecommunications & Information Administration. In ITA, Matt managed federal grant-funded projects under the Market Development Cooperator Program. He served with the Bureau of Industry and Security as the Western Region’s Senior Export Administration Specialist in California and as Acting Director of the Silicon Valley export office, receiving the Department’s Bronze Medal Award for superior service.
With the private sector, he worked for Cray Research Inc. (then a world-leading manufacturer of supercomputers) as their Manager for International Affairs. In addition to his corporate background and over 25 years of service with the U.S. Department of Commerce, Matt also has experience working in: the U.S. House of Representatives, city management, trade associations, shipping industry, and as a manufacturer’s representative for the plastics industry.
His overseas experiences with the U.S. Commercial Service include an assignment with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (London, U.K.); and roles in Oslo, Norway; Johannesburg, South Africa; Prague, Czech Republic; and trade promotion projects in Japan and Germany.
Matt has a Masters in Public Administration from American University in Washington, D.C. (1985) and a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and International Studies from DePaul University in Chicago (1982).
