Amb. David Satterfield
Rice University
Director, Baker Institute for Public Policy
Ambassador David M. Satterfield has over four decades of diplomatic service and policy and management leadership experience in the United States and overseas in the Near East and Europe. He has served as assistant secretary of state, National Security Council staff director and as ambassador to Lebanon and Turkey and charge’ d’affaires in Iraq and Egypt. Satterfield has extensive bilateral and multinational negotiating experience, most notably the 1995 Roadmap for Israel-Palestinian Peace (with the United Nations), the 2000 withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from Lebanon and Blue Line boundary agreement (with the United Nations), and the 2008 Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the United States and Iraq. As Department of State coordinator for Iraq he managed the largest domestic staff in the department’s history and directed fundamental reforms to the Foreign Service that established “expeditionary diplomacy” as a career model. As director general of the Multinational Force and Observers, Satterfield conceived and directed the comprehensive modernization of military and civilian peacekeeping operations and led fundraising efforts with the U.S. Congress and donor governments. Among other honors, Satterfield is the recipient of the highest Department of State recognition, the Secretary of State Distinguished Service Award, the highest award for senior federal executives, the Office of Personnel Management Distinguished Federal Executive Rank Award, and the Multinational Force and Observers Distinguished Service for Peace Award. Satterfield is a graduate of the University of Maryland and speaks Arabic, French and Italian. He is married to Elizabeth Ann Fritschle, a career Foreign Service officer.
