Ambassador Philip C. Wilcox, Jr. retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 1997 after a 31-year career, and was president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace until 2014. He previously served as press attaché in Vientiane, Laos, political and economic-commercial officer in Jakarta, Indonesia, and chief of the Economic-Commercial Section in Dhaka, Bangladesh. His last overseas assignment was as chief of mission and consul general in Jerusalem. Ambassador Wilcox served as special assistant to the undersecretary for management, deputy director for U.N. political affairs in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs and as director for regional affairs in the Bureau for Middle Eastern and South Asian Affairs. He also held the positions of director for Israeli and Arab-Israeli affairs and deputy assistant secretary of state for Middle Eastern affairs.
Mr. Wilcox is a graduate of the National War College. He has been awarded the Department of State's Meritorious, Superior, and Presidential Honor Awards. He is a member of the board of American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) and a member of the Washington Institute for Foreign Affairs and Dacor-Bacon House. After his retirement, Mr. Wilcox was appointed by the secretary of state to serve as a member of an accountability review board, chaired by Admiral William Crowe, to investigate the terrorist bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya on August 7, 1998.