Robert W. Jordan (born October 9, 1945) is an American lawyer and diplomat. He served as the United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 2002 to 2003, under President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

Biography

Early life

Jordan received his B.A. degree from

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

in 1967, his M.A. from the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of Mary ...

in 1971 while serving in the U.S. Navy, and his J.D. from the

University of Oklahoma College of Law The University of Oklahoma College of Law is the professional graduate law school of the University of Oklahoma. It is located on the University's campus in Norman, Oklahoma. The College of Law was founded in 1909 by a resolution of the OU Boar ...

in 1974.

Career

Jordan was a partner in the

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

office of

Baker Botts Baker Botts L.L.P. is an American law firm of around 725 lawyers. Headquartered in One Shell Plaza in Downtown Houston, Texas, the firm has energy and technology related clients. It is referred to as the second-oldest law firm west of the Missi ...

, the law firm of James Baker. In the early 1990s, he represented

in the investigation by the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

into possible

insider trading Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider information ...

in Bush's sale of stock in

Harken Energy HKN, Inc. is a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration headquartered in Southlake, Texas. It is notable for the Harken Energy scandal, which involved allegations of insider trading by George W. Bush in 1990. The company was known as Harken En ...

. Jordan was the president of the Dallas Bar Association in 1999. In 2001, Bush, who had become

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

, appointed Jordan as Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. He held that post from June 2002 through October 2003. When Jordan resigned his ambassadorship, he returned to Baker Botts and is currently a senior partner of the firm. Jordan is currently partner-in-charge of the firm's Middle East offices and divides his time between Dubai and the United States. Jordan is a member of the American Arbitration Association Commercial Panel of Arbitrators, the National Panel of Distinguished Neutrals of the CPR International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution, and The London Court of International Arbitration. A member of the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...

, he serves as president of the Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations and as vice chairman of the board of directors of the

John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies The John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies' is an American think tank based in Dallas, Texas, and now associated with Southern Methodist University. The primary mission of the Tower Center is to promote the study of politics and internati ...

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , prov ...

.John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies Board of Directors
Jordan also serves on the executive committee of the board of directors of the Center for American and International Law and the advisory board of the Center's Institute for Transnational Arbitration. Jordan serves as Diplomat in Residence and adjunct professor of political science at

, where he teaches a course on the Middle East. In 2007, he received the Fellows Award presented by the Dallas Bar Foundation.

References

External links

Biography on Baker Botts website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jordan, Robert W. Duke University alumni University of Oklahoma alumni Ambassadors of the United States to Saudi Arabia Living people 1945 births People associated with Baker Botts 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers

Biography

Early life

Career

References

Further reading

External links