Joseph B. Gildenhorn
b. 1929 -
“Diplomacy is the answer to global conflicts, which require dialogue between adverse parties.”
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Service History
US Ambassador to Switzerland, 1989 – 1993
Biography
Joseph B. Gildenhorn is a founding partner of The JBG Companies: a diversified real estate development and management company that has developed many of the significant office buildings, residential buildings, and hotels in the greater Washington, DC area. He is currently a trustee and former chairman of the University of Maryland College Park Foundation Board of Trustees and endowed the Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies at the University. He also serves on the boards of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, the Council of American Ambassadors, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He currently serves as a trustee of the Diplomacy Center Foundation's Board of Trustees.
Gildenhorn was the former chairman of the Board of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars from June 2002 to September 2013 and is now co-chairman of the Wilson National Cabinet. He is a widely respected diplomat and businessman. In 1989, President George H. W. Bush appointed him to serve as the US ambassador to Switzerland, where he served until 1993. He served as vice chairman and board member of the DC Sports & Entertainment Commission (1995 to 2003) and president of the United Jewish Appeal Federation of Greater Washington (1987 to 1989).
Alma and Joseph Gildenhorn have received many awards and citations for community service. Among them was their joint recognition as "Washingtonians of the Year." Recently, they were inducted into the University of Maryland Hall of Fame, the first couple to receive this prestigious award.