Matthew Bryza

Matthew Bryza is the Director of the International Center for Defence studies in Tallinn, Estonia, a Non- Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council of the United States, and a Board member of the Jamestown Foundation in Washington, DC. He resides in Istanbul, Turkey, where he also works as a consultant on business and democratic development and as a board member of several private companies involved with energy, oil spill response, agribusiness, and petrochemicals.

Bryza just completed a 23-year career as a U.S. diplomat, over half of which he spent at the center of policy- making and international negotiations on major energy infrastructure projects and regional conflicts in Eurasia. His most recent assignment was as U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan from February 2011 to January 2012.

During 2005 to 2009, Ambassador Bryza served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, with responsibility for Eurasian Energy, the South Caucasus, Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus. Ambassador Bryza simultaneously served as the U.S. Co-Chair of the OSCE"s Minsk Group mediating the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and as U.S. mediator of the Cyprus, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia conflicts.

During 2001 to 2005, Ambassador Bryza served in the White House as Director for European and European Affairs on the National Security Council Staff. His responsibilities included Eurasian energy, the South Caucasus, Central Asia, and political Islam in Eurasia.

Previous assignments include Deputy to the Special Advisor to the President and Secretary of State on Caspian Energy, Advisor on Economic Reform in the South Caucasus and Central Asia and Russia Desk Officer at the State Department; and Political Officer at the U.S. Missions to Russia (1995-97) and Poland (1989-91).