William B. Taylor is the executive vice president at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Before that, he served as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009.

At the U.S. State Department, he was also special coordinator for Middle East Transitions, and oversaw assistance and support to Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria. He served as the U.S. government’s representative to the Mideast Quartet, which facilitated the Israeli disengagement from Gaza and parts of the West Bank.  He served in Baghdad as the first director of the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office from 2004 to 2005, and in Kabul as coordinator of international and U.S. assistance to Afghanistan from 2002 to 2003. Ambassador Taylor was also coordinator of U.S. assistance to the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

He is a graduate of West Point and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and served as an infantry platoon leader and combat company commander in the U.S. Army in Vietnam and Germany.