Ambassador Richard L. Morningstar | |
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2nd Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy | |
Incumbent | |
Assumed office April 20, 2009 |
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President | Barack Obama |
Preceded by | C. Boyden Gray |
Richard L. Morningstar (b. 1945) is the Special Envoy of the United States Secretary of State for Eurasian Energy.
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Richard Morningstar earned a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, from Harvard College, and a Master of Laws from Stanford Law School in 1970.[1][2]
Morningstar started his career with the law firm of Peabody & Brown (now Nixon Peabody) in Boston, Massachusetts, where he practiced law from 1970 to 1981. He then served as CEO of Costar Corporation, and since 1990 as the Chairman of the Board.[1][3] Since June 1993, Morningstar served as Senior Vice President for Policy and Investment Development at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. In April 1995, Morningstar was posted as the Special Advisor to the President and Secretary of State on Assistance to the New Independent States of the Former Soviet Union. His rank of ambassador was confirmed by the Senate on 11 June 1996. In July 1998, he was assigned as a Special Advisor to the President and the Secretary of State for Caspian Basin Energy Diplomacy. In that capacity Morningstar was a promoter of the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline. In 1999–2001, Morningstar served as the United States Ambassador to the European Union.[3]
On 20 April 2009, Ambassador Morningstar was named to the position of the Special Envoy of the United States Secretary of State for Eurasian Energy.[4] In that capacity Morningstar represented the United States at the signing ceremony of the intergovernmental agreement of the Nabucco pipeline.[5][6] He has strongly opposed the possible participation of Iran in the Nabucco project.[7][8]
Morningstar has been a visiting scholar and diplomat in residence at the Stanford University Institute for International Studies, a lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School and an adjunct professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.[1]
Richard Morningstar is married to Faith Pierce Morningstar with two sons and two daughters.[3]