Gen. (ret.) John Abizaid

John P. Abizaid is Chairman of the Middle East Institute's Board of Governors. He is a retired four-star general from the US Army who most recently served as the United States Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

He served as the Distinguished Chair (Emeritus) of the Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy at West Point and was the first Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He was awarded Honorary Degrees from Dartmouth College and Norwich University. He has worked with the Preventive Defense Project at Stanford University and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and served on the CIA's External Advisory Board. He is a Director of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He led the Dover Inquiry Panel, co-chaired the 2014 National Defense Panel, and led several other national-level assessment panels dealing with military issues. He has served as a board member for USAA, Virtu Financial, and RPM International, advising several smaller firms and their leadership teams. From 2016 to 2018, he served as the senior advisor for the Secretary of Defense to the Ukrainian Minister of Defense.

In 2015, he was inducted into the US Army Ranger Hall of Fame. General Abizaid retired from the United States Army in May 2007 as Commander of US Central Command after thirty-four years of active service. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, he commanded units at every level, serving in Grenada, Lebanon, Kurdistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Units under his command include the 1st Infantry Division, a brigade in the 82nd Airborne Division, a Parachute Battalion Combat Team, and two Ranger companies. He studied at the University of Jordan in Amman, holds a master's degree in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University, and has deep regional and international strategy expertise.

He is the principal partner of JPA Partners, LLC, a firm that advises private business, government, and academic clients on leadership, national and international strategy, business, security, and military affairs.