Ambassador Edward P. Djerejian, the founding director of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, is one of the United States’ most distinguished diplomats, whose career has spanned the administrations of eight U.S. presidents. Ambassador Djerejian is a leading expert on the complex political, security, economic, religious and ethnic issues of the Middle East. Ambassador Djerejian has played key roles in the Arab–Israeli peace process, the U.S.-led coalition against Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, successful efforts to end the civil war in Lebanon, the release of U.S. hostages in Lebanon, and the establishment of collective and bilateral security arrangements in the Persian Gulf.

Prior to his nomination by President Clinton as U.S. ambassador to Israel, he served both President Bush and President Clinton as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs and President Reagan and President Bush as U.S. ambassador to the Syrian Arab Republic. Ambassador Djerejian has also served as deputy assistant secretary of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, as deputy chief of the U.S. mission to the Kingdom of Jordan, and as special assistant to President Reagan and deputy press secretary for foreign affairs in the White House.

Ambassador Djerejian joined the Foreign Service in 1962, and his assignments included political officer in Beirut, Lebanon, and Casablanca, Morocco; he also was consul general in Bordeaux, France. He headed the political section in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow during the critical period in U.S.–Soviet relations marked by the invasion of Afghanistan.   He served in the United States Army as a first lieutenant in the Republic of Korea following his graduation from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

He holds a Bachelor of Science and an honorary doctorate in humanities from Georgetown University, and a doctor of laws, honoris causa, from Middlebury College. He speaks Arabic, Russian, French and Armenian.

Ambassador Djerejian has been awarded the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, the Department of State's Distinguished Honor Award, the President's Meritorious Service Award, the Anti-Defamation League’s Moral Statesman Award, and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

Ambassador Djerejian was asked by Secretary of State Colin Powell to chair a congressionally mandated bipartisan Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy in the Arab and Muslim World. The bipartisan advisory group published its report in October 2003.  Former President Bill Clinton invited him to serve as an Advisory Board member of the Clinton Global Initiative’s working group on Mitigating Religious and Ethnic Conflict. Ambassador Djerejian served in 2006 as senior advisor to the Iraq Study Group (ISG), a bipartisan panel mandated by the Congress to assess the current and prospective situation in Iraq. The Baker Institute was an organizing sponsor of the ISG.

He is managing partner of Djerejian Global Consultancies, LLP, and is also on several public and nonprofit boards.

Ambassador Djerejian is married to the former Françoise Andrée Liliane Marie Haelters. They have a son, Gregory Peter Djerejian, and a daughter, Francesca Natalia Djerejian.