Ambassador Thomas Pickering, a career foreign service officer and distinguished fellow, foreign policy, at the Brookings Institution, will deliver a lecture titled “Iran: Deal or No Deal?” on Friday, Oct. 2, at 4:30 p.m., in the Chapel. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Pickering spent more than four decades as a U.S. diplomat. He last served as undersecretary of state for political affairs, the third highest post in the U.S. State Department. Pickering was also ambassador to the United Nations, the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria and Jordan, and holds the personal rank of Career Ambassador. He has held numerous other positions at the State Department, including executive secretary and special assistant to Secretaries Rogers and Kissinger and assistant secretary for the bureau of oceans, environmental and scientific affairs.
Pickering is currently vice chairman of Hills & Company, an international consulting firm providing advice to U.S. businesses on investment, trade, and risk assessment issues abroad, particularly in emerging market economies.
After retiring from the State Department in 2000, Pickering joined The Boeing Company as senior vice president, international relations and member of the executive council until he retired in 2006. Pickering holds degrees from Bowdoin College, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and the University of Melbourne.
