Ambassador (Ret.) Theodore Kattouf is president and chief executive officer of AMIDEAST and former U.S. ambassador to both the United Arab Emirates and Syria. He joined the Foreign Service in 1972 and has served in Kuwait, Damascus, Sanaa, Riyadh, and Baghdad. He also served as director of the Office of Labanon, Jordan and Syrian Affairs. He has been a State Department Fellow at Princeton University and has received the Cobb Award for outstanding advocacy efforts on behalf of U.S. companies abroad, two Meritorious Honor Awards, four Senior Performance Awards, and one Presidential Honor Award. He is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University.
