Ambassador Grossman has been a career Foreign Service Officer since 1976. He was Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources, from June 2000 to February 2001, and Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, from August 1997 to May 2000. From November 1994 to June 1997, he served as U.S. Ambassador to Turkey. Prior to this, from January 1993 to September 1994, he was Special Assistant to the Secretary of State and Executive Secretary of the Department of State.

Before assuming these duties, Ambassador Grossman served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs. He was Executive Assistant to Deputy Secretary of State John C. Whitehead,  from September 1986 to January 1989.

From 1984 to 1986, Ambassador Grossman was the Deputy Director of the Private Office of Lord Carrington, then Secretary General of NATO.

Other overseas assignments include tours as a political officer at the U.S Mission to NATO and in Islamabad. In Washington, DC he also has served as Deputy Special Adviser to President Carter and in several capacities for the Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs.

Ambassador Grossman earned a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara and an MSc. in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.