Ambassador Adam Ereli is a proven leader and innovator in the fields of foreign government relations, international defense and security policy, commercial advocacy, media relations and crisis communications and international educational and cultural policy and programs.

Adam is currently CEO of the IberoAmerican Group, a strategic advisory firm that he founded in 2016. IberoAmerican counsels foreign governments, non-governmental entities and private sector clients on policy formulation, communications and business development in the Middle East and South Asia.

Adam retired from the U.S. State Department in 2013, after 24 years as a Foreign Service Officer, during which time he developed close relationships with leaders in government, business and the media in the United States and overseas. From 2013-2016, Adam was Vice Chairman of Mercury Public Affairs, a large public relations and lobbying firm. Adam led the firm’s international practice and represented large corporate and sovereign accounts, including the governments of Nigeria, Uganda, Japan and Qatar.

As U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Bahrain from 2007-2011, Adam tripled U.S. foreign direct investment, including significant joint-venture partnerships with such industry leaders as Occidental Petroleum and Thomson-Reuters, as well as the $3 billion sale of Boeing aircraft to the national carrier. He also negotiated important base access and security cooperation agreements on behalf of the United States.

As Deputy Spokesman for the Department of State from 2003-2006, Adam managed strategic communications, media relations, messaging and crisis communications for Secretaries Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. He has appeared in hundreds of hours of on-the-record briefings, interviews and talk shows on U.S. and foreign news networks in English, Arabic and French.

Adam has led complex interagency negotiations with foreign governments that have produced important agreements for U.S. interests. In Qatar, he concluded a Status of Forces Agreement that paved the way for the deployment of forces that were critical to the success of operations in Iraq in 2003. In Iraq, he helped secure passage of a Strategic Framework Agreement, which provided the legal basis for continuing the U.S. military presence in Iraq. He oversaw the implementation of a Free Trade Agreement with Bahrain, resolving a number of contentious issues and doubling bilateral trade.

Adam serves on the Board of Advisors of the Arabia Foundation, the Bilateral U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce, the Hollings Center for International Dialogue and the International Institute of Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund. He is a regular guest on Fox News, Bloomberg TV, Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya and Sky News Arabia and has published opinion pieces in The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Forbes and Foreign Policy.

Adam has a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He speaks French and Arabic.