J.D. Bindenagel

J. D. Bindenagel, Vice President for Community, Government and International Affairs DePaul University.

"Bindenagel brings extensive experience in governmental and international affairs to DePaul. He served in the U.S. Army, the State Department and in U.S. embassies in Germany in various capacities from 1972 to 2003. A former American ambassador and 28-year veteran of the U.S. diplomatic corps, Bindenagel was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1999 as U.S. Ambassador and Special Envoy for Holocaust issues and reached agreements on World War II-era forced labor, insurance, art, property restitution, and Holocaust education, research and remembrance. From 2002-2003, Bindenagel was special U.S. negotiator for "Conflict Diamonds," leading a U.S. government negotiation, which resulted in a worldwide ban on sales of illicit, rough "conflict" diamonds from financing insurrections against legitimate governments in Africa.

"He was U.S. Chargé d'Affaires and deputy chief of mission in the U.S. Embassy, Bonn, Germany, from 1994 to 1997 and director for Central European Affairs in the Bureau of European and Canadian Affairs at the State Department from 1992 to 1994. He was U.S. deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, East Germany, at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and helped negotiate the reunification of Germany.

"Other Foreign Service assignments included head of the embassy political affairs unit in Bonn in the mid-1980s, when he helped pave the way for the deployment of U.S. Pershing missiles on German soil. He also was an American Political Science Association fellow with Congressman Lee H. Hamilton (1987-1988) and was director, Business-Government Programs for Rockwell International (1991-1992). He served in the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, Korea (1975-1977). He was also the vice president of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations (2003-2005).

"Bindenagel received the State Department's Distinguished Service Award in 2001, the Commander's Cross of the Federal Order of Merit from the president of Germany in 2001, and the Presidential Meritorious Service Award from President George W. Bush in 2002. He serves on boards of the Humanitarian Aid Foundation, the International Visitors Center Chicago, the German-American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest and the Arthur F. Burns Fellowships.

"He also serves on the boards of the DePaul International Human Rights Law and International Aviation Law Institutes, the Bernadin Center for Theology and Ministry, the Wilson Center Council, the Grant Park Conservancy, and he is a member of the of the advisory board of the American Jewish Committee Berlin. Bindenagel is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the President's Circle and Global Executive Committee of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the American Council on Germany and the American Institute of Contemporary German Studies.

"He holds a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in public administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign."


 * Director, Global Philanthropy Partnership
 * International Advisory Board, World Security Network