Biography of Ambassador Richard Gardner

Richard N. Gardner, professor of law and international organization at Columbia Law School, is also senior counsel to Morgan Lewis, a global law firm. He is a former U.S. ambassador to Italy (1977–1981) and Spain (1993–1997). During his service in Spain, he received the Thomas Jefferson Award for his contributions to U.S. citizens abroad. From 1961 to 1965, he served as deputy assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs.

Gardner was a member of the President’s Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations and a U.S. delegate to the ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization in 1999. In 2000, he was a public delegate to the United Nations General Assembly, and he has served as a special advisor to the United Nations on environmental matters. He is currently a member of the Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy.

Gardner received his law degree from Yale Law School; a doctorate in economics from Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar; and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard. His Oxford thesis, Sterling-Dollar Diplomacy, has been described as the “classic” study of Anglo-American economic collaboration in the creation of the Bretton Woods institutions and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. He is the author of four other books and numerous articles on international affairs.

Gardner is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a member of the International Advisory Board of Grupo Santander of Spain and vice president of the American Ditchley Foundation.