His Royal Highness Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Sa’ud served as the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United States from 2005 to 2007. From 1977 to 2001, he served as the Director General of the General Intelligence Directorate, the Kingdom’s main foreign intelligence service. Prince Turki is one of the founders of the King Faisal Foundation and is the Chairman of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh. Prince Turki serves as a member of the Boards of Trustees of the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies.

General Lloyd J. Austin III assumed command of United States Central Command (CENTCOM), which has a wide-ranging area of responsibility for 20 countries in the Middle East and southwest Asia, on March 22, 2013. He was previously the 33d Vice Chief of Staff of the Army. General Austin led the 3rd Infantry Division in the opening months of the Iraq war where he earned a Silver Star for valor. He later commanded divisions in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and commanded U.S. Forces-Iraq from September 2010 through the completion of the mission in December 2011.

Ambassador James B. Smith was sworn in on September 16, 2009, as the U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Prior to his appointment, Ambassador Smith had served in a variety of executive positions with Raytheon Company involving corporate strategic planning, aircraft manufacturing, and international business development. Ambassador Smith spent a 28 year career in the United States Air Force. He was promoted to Brigadier General in October, 1998, and retired from the Air Force on October 1, 2002.

His Excellency Mohamed Bin Abdulla Al-Rumaihi presented his credentials as Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the United States to President Barack Obama on May 3, 2012. Prior to his posting in Washington, H.E. Mohamed Al-Rumaihi served as Qatar’s Assistant Foreign Minister for Follow-Up Affairs, a position he was appointed to in 2003. Ambassador Al-Rumaihi was elevated to ministerial-rank in 2010. During this time, he also headed the Permanent Committee for Organizing Conferences and the Government Committee for Delineating Maritime Borders.

Ms. Sarah Ladislaw is Co-Director and Senior Fellow in the CSIS Energy and National Security Program, where she concentrates on the geopolitics of energy, energy security, energy technology, and climate change. She has been involved with CSIS’s work on the geopolitics portion of the 2007 National Petroleum Council study and the CSIS Smart Power Commission, focusing particularly on energy security and climate issues. Ms. Ladislaw teaches a graduate level course on energy security at The George Washington University.

H.E. Mohamed Tawfik was designated as Egypt’s first Ambassador to the United State of America to be accredited after the 25 January 2011 revolution. A career diplomat since 1983, Ambassador Tawfik also served as Egypt’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Australia, and as non-resident Ambassador to New Zealand, Western Samoa, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the Marshall Islands. Throughout his numerous assignments, Ambassador Tawfik took part in bilateral, regional, and multinational negotiations, international conferences, and meetings in the fields of disarmament, labor, human rights, and trade.

Dr. Anthony H. Cordesman holds the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at CSIS. He is a recipient of the Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal. During his time at CSIS, he has completed a wide variety of studies on energy, U.S. strategy and defense plans, counterterrorism, armed nation building, the security of the Middle East, and the Afghan and Iraq conflicts. Dr. Cordesman frequently acts as a consultant to the U.S. State Department, Defense Department, and intelligence community and has worked with U.S. officials on counteterrorism and security areas in a number of Middle East countries.

Ms. Leila Hilal is Director of the Middle East Task Force at the New America Foundation. She focuses on Syria, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and issues related to U.S. foreign policy, community-based change, constitution-making, and transitional justice in the Middle East and North Africa. Prior to joining the New America Foundation, Ms. Hilal served as Senior Policy Adviser to the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and as a legal adviser to Palestinian negotiators from 2002-2008.

H.E. Dr. Mohammed AlHussaini Al Sharif is the Chief Representative of the League of Arab States to the United States. A career diplomat, Dr. AlHussaini was the Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to Turkey before assuming his current post. He has also served as the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Canada; Head of the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Houston, Texas; Head of the Saudi Arabian Mission in Mali; and represented Saudi Arabia in Venezuela, the United Kingdom, and the Philippines.

Dr. Bassam Haddad is Director of the Middle East Studies Program and teaches in the Department of Public and International Affairs at George Mason University, and is Visiting Professor at Georgetown University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience and recently published “The Political Economy of Syria: Realities and Challenges,” in Middle East Policy. Dr. Haddad serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal, is co-producer/director of the documentary film About Baghdad, and director of a film series on Arabs and Terrorism. Dr. Haddad also serves on the Editorial Committee of Middle East Report and is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine.

Ms. Randa Fahmy Hudome is a member of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations’ Board of Directors. She is the President of Fahmy Hudome International (FHI), a strategic consulting firm which provides critical advice and counsel to Fortune 500 companies, foreign governments, media organizations, and private sector entities with business interests in the Middle East and North Africa. Prior to founding FHI, Ms. Fahmy Hudome served as the United States Associate Deputy Secretary of Energy under President George W. Bush.

Dr. Trita Parsi is the Founder and President of the National Iranian American Council. He is the author of Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States, which was the silver medal winner of the 2008 Arthur Ross Book Award from the Council on Foreign Relations. Dr. Parsi’s latest book, A Single Roll of the Dice – Obama’s Diplomacy with Iran, was selected by Foreign Affairs journal as the Best Book of 2012 on the Middle East.

Dr. David W. Lesch is Professor of Middle East History at Trinity University in San Antonio. His books include Syria: The Fall of the House of Assad(2012), The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A History (2008), The New Lion of Damascus: Bashar al-Asad and Modern Syria (2005), 1979: The Year That Shaped the Modern Middle East (2001), and The Middle East and the United States: History, Politics and Ideologies, now in its 5th edition (2011). He is also co-editor of The Arab Spring: Change and Resistance in the Middle East (2012).

Dr. Janet E. Breslin-Smith has had a 30-year career in public service and held leadership roles in the United States Senate, professional military higher education, and international outreach in women’s higher education in the Middle East. She served as Professor of National Security Strategy for 14 years at the National War College and was the first women to chair the Department of National Security Strategy.

H.E. Maen Rashid Areikat currently serves as Chief Representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to the United States. Previously, Ambassador Areikat served for 11 years at the Negotiations Affairs Department (NAD) of the PLO in Ramallah, most recently as its Deputy Head and Coordinator-General (2008-2009). Ambassador Areikat first joined NAD in 1998, when it was headed by current Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and served as Director-General until March 2008.

Ambassador Chas. W. Freeman, Jr. is President Emeritus of the Middle East Policy Council. He served as United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (1993-94), earning the Department of Defense’s highest public service awards for his roles in designing a NATO-centered post-Cold War European security system and in reestablishing defense and military relations with China. Ambassador Freeman is Chairman of the Board of Projects International, Inc., a Washington, DC-based business development firm.

Ms. Alexis Arieff is an analyst on Africa and the Maghreb at the Congressional Research Service, where she is responsible for preparing independent, non-partisan policy research for members of Congress and their staff. Prior to joining CRS, she worked as a researcher on Africa at the Committee to Protect Journalists, a contributing writer for Freedom House, and a research assistant at the International Crisis Group’s West Africa field office in Dakar, Senegal. She was a 2008-09 Fulbright scholar in Conakry, Guinea.

Dr. Herman Franssen is Executive Director of the Energy Intelligence Group. He is also President of International Energy Associates, a Distinguished Associate with Fesharaki & Associates, a Senior Associate of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Visiting Fellow of the Centre for Global Energy Studies, and a Senior Fellow of Middle East Consultants. Dr. Franssen was Senior Economic Advisor of H.E. the Minister of Petroleum and Minerals of the Sultanate of Oman (1985-1996) and in this capacity helped organize IPEC (Independent Petroleum Exporting Countries).

Dr. Judith S. Yaphe is Distinguished Research Fellow for the Middle East in the Institute for National Strategic Studies, the National Defense University at Ft. McNair, Washington, DC. She specializes in Iraq, Iran, and Arabian/Persian Gulf history, politics, and security issues. Before joining INSS in 1995, Dr. Yaphe served for 20 years as a senior analyst on Near East-Persian Gulf issues in the Office of Near Eastern and South Asian Analysis, Directorate of Intelligence, CIA.

Dr. Abdullah K. Al-Shayji is a Professor of International Relations and the Chairman of the Political Science Department at Kuwait University. He is a specialist in Gulf and U.S. politics. Dr. Al-Shayji is also a lecturer at Kuwait’s Mubarak Alabdullah Joint Command and Staff College, and the Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs Diplomatic Institute. He has published over 30 articles in both Arabic and English on issues related to elections and the Kuwaiti parliamentary experience, democratization, and the external and internal factors affecting political reforms in the GCC states.

Dr. Paul Sullivan is Professor of Economics at the National Defense University and an Adjunct Professor of Security Studies at Georgetown University. He is a columnist for Turkiye Gazetesi of Istanbul, Turkey and for the UB Post of Ulan Baator, Mongolia. Dr. Sullivan is a Global Expert at the UN Alliance of Civilizations and an Adjunct Senior Fellow, Future Global Resource Threats, at the Federation of American Scientists. He is a regular contributor to the National Journal Expert Blogs on “Energy and Environment” and “National Security.”

Professor Karim Haggag is a career Egyptian diplomat and a Visiting Professor at the U.S. Department of Defense/National Defense University’s Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies. He has served in numerous capacities as part of Egypt’s Foreign Service focusing on Middle East regional security, arms control and non-proliferation, and Arab-Israeli diplomacy. Professor Haggag served as the Director of the Egyptian Press and Information Office in Washington DC from 2007-2011 and in the Office of the Presidency in Cairo responsible for US-Egyptian relations and economic policy coordination from 2002-2007.

Ms. Nadia Bilbassy is Senior Correspondent for Al-Arabiya news channel. She was previously Chief Washington Correspondent for MBC TV (Middle East Broadcasting Centre). Prior to moving to Washington, Ms. Bilbassy was embedded with the 101st Marines Division in Kuwait on the push to Baghdad in March 2003. From 1997 to 2003, Ms. Bilbassy was the Bureau Chief for MBC-TV, Middle East Broadcasting Centre, based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Dr. Andrew Parasiliti is Editor & CEO of Al-Monitor. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the US Friends of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Before joining Al-Monitor, Dr. Parasiliti was Executive Director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies-US and Corresponding Director, IISS-Middle East; Principal, Government Affairs-International, at The BGR Group; Foreign Policy Advisor to US Senator Chuck Hagel; Director of the Middle East Initiative at the John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; and Director of Programs at the Middle East Institute.

Commodore (Ret.) Abdulateef Al-Mulhim writes essays and op-eds that appear in regularly in Arab News, Al Yaum, the SUSRISblog, and elsewhere. He is retired from the Royal Saudi Navy at the rank of Commodore. Al-Mulhim served extensively in the United States, including attendance at the Maritime College of the State University of New York.

Ambassador Patrick N. Theros served as U.S. Ambassador to Qatar from 1995 to 1998. He is currently the President and Executive Director of the US-Qatar Business Council, the key trade facilitation organization between the United States and Qatar. Prior to his posting in Doha, Ambassador Theros served as the Acting Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism at the State Department. He also served in a number of other diplomatic positions, including Political Advisor to US Central Command, Charge d’ Affaires in the UAE and Jordan, as well as in senior positions in Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon.

Ambassador Ford M. Fraker served as U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from 2007 to 2009, spanning both the George W. Bush and Barack H. Obama administrations. He has more than 30 years of experience in banking, finance, and investment in the Middle East. Ambassador Fraker currently serves as Senior Advisor to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) and as Chairman, KKR Middle East and North Africa; Senior Advisor to Trinity Group Limited; and is a member of the Middle East Advisory Board of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

Mr. Christopher McGrath is Senior Liaison Officer and Acting Head of the Washington Representative Office of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Prior to joining UNRWA in 2011, Mr. McGrath was a communications strategist for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, where he was responsible for providing messaging to the Senate Democratic Caucus and directing the media event function in the Senate Democratic Policy and Communications Committee.