| Thomas Pickering
Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering held the highest career position, rank and awards in the U.S. State Department and was ambassador to six countries. Following retirement, he was Vice President for International Affairs at The Boeing Co. He is currently vice chairman of Hills and Co., which provides advice and counsel to major U.S. enterprises.
He holds the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the U.S. Foreign Service. In a diplomatic career spanning five decades, he was ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria, Jordan and the United Nations. He also served on assignments in Zanzibar, Tanzania, and in Geneva as political adviser to the U.S. delegation to the 18-nation Disarmament Conference. On assignments in the State Department, he was Executive Secretary and Special Assistant to Secretaries Rogers and Kissinger, and served in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research and in the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.
In 1983 and 1986 Pickering won the Distinguished Presidential Award and in 1996 he received the highest State Department award, the Distinguished Service Award.
He speaks French, Spanish, and Swahili, and with lesser fluency Arabic, Hebrew and Russian.
|
