About Roy Potts

Roy Potts, is the founder of The Potts Group and a seasoned policy professional with more than thirty years of experience across national security, international affairs, and global trade enforcement.

From 2023 to 2025, Roy served as the first Director of the Entity List Office within the Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In this role, he led the office responsible for enforcing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) by identifying and designating entities linked to forced labor in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, preventing prohibited goods from entering the U.S. market.

Prior to this appointment, Roy served as a senior advisor to the DHS Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and as Chief of the Research Division in the Refugee, Asylum, and International Operations Directorate at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for over 15 years. He led a highly skilled research team producing open-source intelligence products used by more than 1,500 officers adjudicating complex refugee and asylum cases. He represented USCIS at the Intergovernmental Consultations on Migration, Asylum, and Refugees (IGC) in Geneva and worked closely with European Union (EU) and non-EU members on country-of-origin research and US capabilities.

Prior to joining DHS, Roy served for over 17 years at the U.S. Department of State. At State, he served as an advisor at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York, as managing editor of the Department's annual human rights report, as an inspector in the Office of the Inspector General, and as an intelligence analyst in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

Roy was a 2021-22 Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow and has been recognized for leadership in national security and foreign affairs. He holds a B.A. from Colgate University, an M.P.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, and a J.D. from The George Washington University School of Law.