Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. is a former United States diplomat who has served across many departments in various capacities over a period of three decades. These include assistant secretary of defense, ambassador to Saudi Arabia during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, acting assistant secretary of state for African affairs, and chargé d’affaires in Bangkok and Beijing. He began his diplomatic career in India but specialized in Chinese affairs, and he was the principal American interpreter during President Richard Nixon’s visit to Beijing in 1972. He remains a frequent visitor to China as well as Arabia.

As chairman of Projects International, he has developed new business, and arranged international private sector joint ventures, acquisitions, and other business operations for American and foreign clients. He is also a managing member of PI Founders Stake Seed Capital Fund I, LLC.

He is a much sought-after public speaker and the author of five books on statecraft and diplomacy. His most recent work on China, “Interesting Times: China, America, and the Shifting Balance of Prestige,” was published in March 2013. “America's Continuing Misadventures in the Middle East” was published in May 2016. He studied at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and in Taiwan, and earned a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from Yale University as well as a J.D. degree from Harvard.