Ford M. Fraker (1948 – September 4, 2017) was a and American diplomat who served as

U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia The United States recognized the government of King Ibn Saud in 1931, but it was not until 1939 when it appointed its first U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Bert Fish, then resident in Cairo and ambassador to Egypt. Fish made one trip down to Jed ...

.He was president of the

Middle East Policy Council The Middle East Policy Council (MEPC) is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)3 non-profit organization that produces analysis and commentary on issues impacting U.S. national interests in the Middle East. It was founded in 1981 under the stated mission ...

and chairman, Merrill Lynch Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Career highlights

Prior to his nomination, Fraker was serving as chairman of the Trinity Group Limited, a private investment banking firm in the United Kingdom, and as consultant for

Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation The Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation is a SEC Registered Investment Adviser that manages private equity real estate investments and provides real estate services for domestic and international clients. Established in Boston, Massachusetts ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. Fraker graduated

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He has served as a banker in the Middle East for more than thirty years. He began his career with

Chemical Bank Chemical Bank was a bank with headquarters in New York City from 1824 until 1996. At the end of 1995, Chemical was the third-largest bank in the U.S., with about $182.9 billion in assets and more than 39,000 employees around the world. Beginning ...

, where he worked from 1972 to 1979. He worked in

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

, the

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

, and

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

, ending as a vice president and Regional Manager for the bank's Bahrain office. He joined the Saudi International Bank in 1979, and worked for SIB until 1991, holding positions of increasing management responsibility in the bank's General Banking, Credit and Client Development units. When he left SIB in 1991, Fraker was serving on the bank's Management Committee. He founded Fraker & Co. in 1991, and in 1993, he joined MeesPierson Investment Finance (UK) Limited, where he was the managing director responsible for placing U.S. and European investment products with European and Middle Eastern institutional and private investors. In 1997, he co-founded Trinity Group Limited, and continued to serve as managing director and chairman until his nomination by President Bush. In 2009, he was named a senior advisor at private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and in 2013 he joined the Board of Directors of the

Personal and family

As of 1990, Fraker has been married for 33 years and has three children. He was born in

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, and spoke French and Arabic.

References

External links

Boston Globe, February 13, 2007Passing of Ford M. Fraker
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fraker, Ford M. 1948 births 2017 deaths Harvard University alumni Ambassadors of the United States to Saudi Arabia People from Princeton, New Jersey