Officers

HONORARY COUNCIL OF ADVISORS
The USACC Honorary Council of Advisors is comprised of individuals of high distinction. Council members serve in advisory capacity.

James Baker III

James A. Baker, III has served in senior government positions under three United States Presidents. He served as the nation's 61^st Secretary of State from January 1989 through August 1992 under President Bush. During his tenure at the State Department, Mr. Baker traveled to 90 foreign countries as the United States confronted the unprecedented challenges and opportunities of the post Cold War era. In 1995, Mr. Baker published The Politics of Diplomacy, his reflections on those years of revolution, war and peace.

Mr. Baker served as the 67^th Secretary of the Treasury from 1985 to 1988 under President Ronald Reagan. As Treasury Secretary, he was also Chairman of the President's Economic Policy Council. From 1981 to 1985, he served as Whit House Chief of Staff to President Reagan. Mr. Baker's record of public service began in 1975 as Under Secretary of Commerce to President Gerald Ford. It concluded with his service as White House Chief of Staff and Senior Counselor to President Bush from August 1992 to January 1993.

Long active in the American presidential politics, Mr. Baker led presidential campaigns for Presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush over the course of five consecutive presidential elections from 1976 to 1992.

A native Houstonian, Mr. Baker graduated from Princeton University 1952. After two years of active duty as a Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, he entered the University of Texas School of Law at Austin. He received his J.D. with honors in 1957, and practiced law with the Houston firm of Andrews and Kurth from 1957 to 1975.

Mr. Baker received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991 and has been the recipient of many other awards for distinguished public service, including Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson Award, The American Institute for Public Service's Jefferson Award, Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government Award, the Department of the Treasury's Alexander Hamilton Award, the Department of State's Distinguished Service Award, and numerous honorary academic degrees.

Mr. Baker is presently a senior partner in the law firm of Baker & Botts and Senior Counselor to The Carlyle Group, a merchant banking firm in Washington, D.C. He is Honorary Chairman of the James A. Baker, III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University and serves on the boards of Rice University, Princeton University, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian and Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 1997, Mr. Baker served as the Personal Envoy of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to mediate direct talks between the parties to the dispute over Western Sahara.

Mr. Baker was born in Houston, Texas in 1930. He and his wife, the former Susan Garrett, currently reside in Houston, and have eight children and twelve grandchildren.