2024 May Chamber Breakfast

Join us for a conversation with Ambassador Paula J. Dobriansky, Ph.D. as we discuss global issues impacting our community. 
 
Ambassador Paula J. Dobriansky, Ph.D. is a foreign policy expert and diplomat specializing in national security affairs. She is Vice Chair of the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and a member of the Council's Executive Committee. Dobriansky sits on several corporate and advisory boards, including Rubicon [NASDAQ: RBT] where she is Chair of the Compensation Committee and a member of the Nomination and Governance Committee. She serves as Co-Chair of the Center for Strategic and International Studies Commission on Ukraine’s Economic Reconstruction.
 
Dobriansky brings over thirty years of government and international experience across senior levels of business, diplomacy, and defense. She was Senior Vice President and Global Head of Government and Regulatory Affairs at Thomson Reuters. In this position, she was responsible for designing and implementing a corporate approach for engagement in Washington, D.C. and other key capitals around the globe and was instrumental in the development of Thomson Reuters’ financial regulatory strategy. Dobriansky was also an integral part of the management team, which was focused on enhancing the demand for Thomson Reuters’ products and services in both the private and public sectors. During this time, she was also appointed the Distinguished National Security Chair at the U.S. Naval Academy.
 
Ambassador Dobriansky served as Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs from 2001 to 2009. Among her primary accomplishments, she established and led the U.S.-India, U.S.-China, and U.S.- Brazil Global Issues Fora – which advanced crucial work and international cooperation on environment, energy, health, development, and humanitarian issues.  Additionally, she was head of delegation and lead negotiator on U.S. climate change policy.
 
In February 2007, as the President's Envoy to Northern Ireland, Dobriansky received the Secretary of State’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal, for her contribution to the historic devolution of power in Belfast. She has held many Senate-confirmed, senior level positions including Director of European and Soviet Affairs at the National Security Council, the White House, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, Deputy Head of the U.S. Delegation to the 1990 Copenhagen Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) and Associate Director for Policy and Programs at the United States Information Agency.
 
Ambassador Dobriansky has also served on key government boards including the Defense Policy Board, the Secretary of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board and as Chair of Exim Bank’s Council on China Competition. From 1997- 2001, she was Senior Vice President and Director of the Washington Office of the Council on Foreign Relations and was the first George F. Kennan Senior Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies. During this time, she also served on the Presidentially-appointed U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy.
 
Ambassador Dobriansky is a Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Diplomacy, she is a Trustee of the Trilateral Commission and serves as Chair of its Membership Committee. She is also on the Advisory Board of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a Trustee of the Naval War College Foundation.


She received a B.S.F.S. summa cum laude in International Politics from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Soviet political/military affairs from Harvard University. Formerly, Dobriansky was a Fulbright Hays scholar, Ford and Rotary Foundation Fellow, a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a recipient of various honors such as the Foreign Policy Association Medal for her service to country and leadership of the World Affairs Councils of America and the International Republican Institute's Women's Democracy Network Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Award (2008). She has received other high-level international recognition including the Commander Cross of the Order of Merit of Poland, Poland's Highest Medal of Merit, Grand Cross of Commander of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas, National Order "Star of Romania", Hungary’s Commander’s Cross Order of Merit, Ukraine’s Order of Merit, and Colombia’s Comendador’s Medal. She is the recipient of five honorary doctorates.

To learn more about Paula, click here.