Jared Smith - Deputy Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs

Jared Smith is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs in the Office of the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Transportation. Prior to his current role, he was Director of Real Estate Investments at Thiel Capital in Los Angeles. Mr. Smith previously served as Acting Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs in early 2021, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs in 2020 during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. In that role, he was the Designated Federal Officer for the National Advisory Committee on Travel and Tourism Infrastructure. Prior to joining DOT, Mr. Smith served in the White House as Special Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff for Presidential Personnel. Earlier, he served at the Department of State in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs in Washington, and at the U.S. Embassy in The Netherlands where he was Special Assistant to the Ambassador.From 2020-2025, he served a term as a Member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, the Board of Trustees for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Mr. Smith earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, Irvine, a Master in Tourist Studies from the University of Tromsø in Norway, and an Executive Master of Business Administration from Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland. He is fluent in Norwegian.