Ambassador Mark Hambley has served in eleven postings in nine Middle Eastern countries during a 30 year diplomatic career, including as U.S. Ambassador in Qatar and Lebanon and as Consul General in Alexandria and in Jeddah. He has also acted as Special Representative to the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, U.S. Representative to the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests, and Special Negotiator on Climate Change during the Clinton and early months of the Bush administrations.

In March 2003, Ambassador Hambley was appointed director of the US Media Outreach Center in London, established by Congress to improve dialogue with the Arab media. He left full time service with the U.S. Government in 2005 but still undertakes special commissions on an ad hoc basis.

In 2005 Ambassador Hambley became a senior Trustee of the Next Century Foundation. In this capacity he has undertaken two missions to date, one to Red Zone Baghdad to facilitate negotiations with His Eminence Abdul Aziz al Hakim, and the other to Jerusalem during the 2006 Lebanon War to work on the Syrian peace track.