Thomas Pickering

Ambassador Thomas Pickering is the Vice Chairman of Hills and Company. Upon his retirement from the US State Department he served as Senior Vice President for International Relations and was a member of the Boeing Executive Council. From 1997-2001 Pickering served as US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs and held the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the US Foreign Service. In a diplomatic career spanning five decades, he has served as US ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and Tanzania. From 1989 to 1992, he served as Ambassador and Representative to the United Nations in New York. Pickering also was the Executive Secretary of the State Department and Special Assistant to Secretaries William P. Rogers and Henry A. Kissinger from 1973 to 1974. In recognition for a career in service, Pickering won the Distinguished Presidential Award in 1983 and 1986 and the State Department’s highest award, the Distinguished Service Award, in 1996. He graduated cum laude from Bowdoin College and received his M.A from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts.  After graduation, Pickering studied at the University of Melbourne on a Fulbright Fellowship.