At the time of his kidnapping, Weinstein was living in Lahore, Pakistan and working as a Country Director of Operations for the Virginia-based development company J.E. Austin Associates. His work reportedly involved supervising a four-year $11-million "competitiveness project", funded by the American government, which was involved in dairy, horticulture, furniture and medical equipment projects. He spoke six foreign languages and had 25 years of experience in international development projects.
