Ambassador Winston Lord

Winston Lord currently serves as Co-Chairman of the International Rescue Committee, the largest non-sectarian organization that both helps refugees aboard and resettles them in the United States. The IRC operates in 28 countries (including Afghanistan and Pakistan) and in eighteen American government and the private sector.

For three decades Ambassador Lord has been at the center of U.S.-China relations. As Special Assistant to the National Security Advisor he accompanied Henry Kissinger on his secret visit to China and President Nixon on his historic opening in the early 1970’s, as well as subsequent trips by President Ford and Dr. Kissinger. From 1985-1989 he served as Ambassador to Beijing under President Reagan and Bush. From 1993-1997 he was Assistant Secretary of State in charge of all East Asian policy, including China, under President Clinton.

Lord’s other key government assignments were as the State Department Director of Policy Planning 1973-1977, and in the Defense and State Departments in the 1960’s.

In between governmental posts Ambassador Lord has headed a variety of private organizations related to international affairs-as President of the Council on Foreign Relations 1977-85, as well as Chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy and Chairman of the Carnegie Endowment National Commission on America and the New World in the early 1990s.

Ambassador Lord earned a B.A. from Yale (magna Cum Laude) and an M.A. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (first in the class). He has received several honorary degrees, the Sates Department’s Distinguished Honor Award and the Defense Department’s Outstanding Performance Award. He is married to the best-selling author Bette Bao Lord and they are the parents of Elizabeth and Winston.