Thomas Pickering

Thomas Pickering is Vice Chairman of Hills and Company. Previously he served as Senior Vice President for International Relations and a member of the Boeing Executive Council upon his retirement as U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs. Ambassador Pickering served as U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs since May 1997. Ambassador Pickering held the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the U.S. Foreign Service. In a diplomatic career spanning five decades, he has served as U.S. ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Ambassador Pickering also served on assignments in Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. From 1989 to 1992, he served as Ambassador and Representative to the United Nations in New York. He also served as Executive Secretary of the Department of State and Special Assistant to Secretaries William P. Rogers and Henry A. Kissinger from 1973 to 1974. In 1983 and in 1986, Ambassador Pickering won the Distinguished Presidential Award and, in 1996, the Department of State's highest award, the Distinguished Service Award.