James A. Baker III

James A. Baker III was U.S. Secretary of State from 1989 to 1992. After leading presidential campaigns for Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, Baker served as White House Chief of Staff from 1981 to 1985. In 1985, he was appointed as Secretary of Treasury. As Secretary of State during the post-Cold War era, Baker traveled to 90 foreign countries.

After his term as Secretary of State, Baker returned to practicing law in the private sector. In 1997, he was appointed as the Personal Envoy of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to seek a political solution to the conflict over Western Sahara. In 2003, he was appointed as a special Presidential Envoy for Iraqi debt. In 2006, he co-chaired the Iraq Study Group with former U.S. Congressman Lee H. Hamilton. The bipartisan blue-ribbon panel was charged with looking at American policy toward Iraq. The Iraq Study Group released a report of their findings in Nov. 2007.

• Co-chair, Iraq Study Group, 2006
• Senior Partner, Baker Botts LLP, 2005-present
• Iraq Debt Envoy, under President George W. Bush, 2003
• Personal Envoy of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Western Sahara, 1997-2004
• Senior Counselor, The Carlyle Group, 1993-present
• Senior Partner, Baker Botts, LLP, 1993-present
• White House Chief of Staff and Senior Counselor to the President, 1992-1993
• U.S. Secretary of State, 1989-1992
• Recipient, Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1991
• U.S. Secretary of Treasury and Chairman of the President’s Economic Policy Council, 1985-1988
• White House Chief of Staff, 1981-1985
• U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce, 1975
• Lawyer, Andrews and Kurth LLP, 1957-1975
• Recipient, Woodrow Wilson Award, Princeton University
• Recipient, Jefferson Award, American Institute for Public Service
• Recipient, John F. Kennedy School of Government Award, Harvard University
• Recipient, Distinguished Service Award, Department of State

• J.D., University of Texas School of Law at Austin, 1957
• B.A., Classics, Princeton University, 1952

• The Iraq Study Group Report: The Way Forward–A New Approach (Co-written with Lee H. Hamilton, Lawrence S. Eagleburger, Vernon E. Jordan Jr., Edwin Meese III, Sandra Day O’Connor, Leon E. Panetta, William J. Perry, Charles S. Robb, and Alan K. Simpson), 2007
• Work Hard, Study…And Keep Out of Politics!, 2006
• The Politics of Diplomacy, 1995