Alexander Russell "Sandy" Vershbow (born July 3, 1952) is an American diplomat and former Deputy Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. From October 2005 to October 2008, he was the United States Ambassador to South Korea. Before that post he had been the ambassador to the Russian Federation from 2001 to 2005 and the ambassador to NATO from 1997 to 2001. For his work with NATO he was awarded the State Department's Distinguished Service Award. In March 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Vershbow as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, a position that holds responsibility for U.S. policy toward NATO, coordination of U.S. security and defense policies relating to the nations and international organizations of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He was confirmed in April 2009. After almost three years with the U.S. Department of Defense, in February 2012, Vershbow moved back to Brussels where he took the position of Deputy Secretary General of NATO, becoming the first American to hold the position. Early life and education Vershbow was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Arthur Vershbow and Charlotte Vershbow (née Zimmerman), both of German descent. Vershbow attended the Buckingham Browne & Nichols School before moving on to Yale College, from which he graduated in 1974 in Russian and East European Studies. He earned an MA at Columbia University in 1976 in International Relations and Certificate of the Russian Institute. He learned to play the drums at a young age and kept up his passion abroad including occasionally playing in bands with other Ambassadors while on foreign assignments. Career National Security Council Vershbow was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European Affairs at the National Security Council (1994–97). He was the first recipient of the Department of Defense's Joseph J. Kruzel Award for his contributions to peace in the former Yugoslavia (1997). Ambassador to Russia Vershbow was US ambassador to Russia from 2001 to 2005. He is famous for ignoring the official ceremony of giving his letter of credence to Russian President Vladimir Putin, for which the reason of "a planned vacation" was given. During his tenure the Embassy publicly supported the candidacy of Elena Mizulina whose political party advocated for the legalization of prostitution. The US Office of Trafficking in Persons and American NGO MiraMed Institute, which was the first nonprofit to work against trafficking of women and girls from Russia, brought