Thomas R. Pickering is Chair of the Board of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He holds the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest rank in the U.S. Foreign Service. In a diplomatic career spanning five decades, he was U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. From 1989 to 1992 he was Ambassador and U.S. Representative to the United Nations in New York. His last assignment with the Department of State was as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 1997 to 2000.

Upon leaving government, Ambassador Pickering served as Senior Vice President for International Relations and a member of the Executive Council of the Boeing Company for five and a half years. He is currently Vice Chairman at Hills and Company, which provides advice and counsel to a number of major US enterprises.

Pickering received his bachelor’s degree with high honors in history from Bowdoin College and his master’s from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He received a second master’s degree while a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He speaks French, Spanish and Swahili and has some fluency in Arabic, Hebrew, and Russian.