Immediately preceding Stuart Jones’ appointment as President of the Middle East Institute, he was President for Regions and Corporate Relations for Bechtel Corp.

Prior to Bechtel, Amb. Jones served for three decades as a US Foreign Service officer with the US State Department. His tenure at State included tours as US Ambassador to Jordan (2011-14) and US Ambassador to Iraq (2014-16). He retired from the State Department in 2017 as the senior Bureau official in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (NEA).

Amb. Jones’ other State Department assignments included: Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for NEA, Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs (EUR), and Deputy Chief of Mission in Baghdad and Cairo. He also served in Turkey, Colombia, and El Salvador., former Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, former US Ambassador to Iraq and to Jordan.