David Diebold

David Diebold works for Business & Conflict and "is trained as a lawyer, and has been a senior official of the American government, served with Minister-Counselor rank as a US Foreign Service Officer, and been an officer and director of numerous private companies around the world.

"While a senior official at the U.S. Commerce Department, he helped promote American business expansion throughout the world, in markets such as Nigeria, Pakistan, the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, the Czech Republic, China, and well beyond. He also served on the U.S. government’s interagency International Energy Security Group, and on the Board of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. In the early 1980s, to initiate a trade and investment relationship between the US and the People’s Republic of China, David paired with Jiang Zemin, then a rising mid-level official of the Chinese government and now Chairman of the Central Military Commission. This began a 20-year adventure with China, still unfolding. The American Chamber of Commerce People’s Republic of China retained David earlier this year to act as their advisors on their advocacy to the PRC government.

"He began his career as a partner in the law firm of Diebold & Millonzi and later had a long international practice with Dechert, one of America’s largest law firms, in Washington D.C. He has been a representative of the Embassy of Japan, the Japanese Ministry of Finance, the Export-Import Bank of Japan, the government of Malta, and the Malta Financial Services Centre. He holds a Juris.Doctor (JD) degree from Cornell University. He has served on the main Board of Trustees of the American Management Association in New York, as Chairman of its International Advisory Council, and a member of the Advisory Board of its joint venture in Shanghai and Beijing. He retains a keen interest in corporate governance issues, and recently lectured on the Linkages between Good Corporate Governance, Legal Systems, and Economic Development at the Central Party School of the Communist Party in Beijing.“