Ray Arnaudo

Acting President

Mr. Arnaudo is a retired State Department official and former Senior Scholar at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, with over forty years experience in international environmental and science policy affairs. He is currently a member of the National Science Foundation’s Polar Affairs Advisory Committee and serves on the U.S. Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names.

Prior to retiring from the State Department in 2014, he served on Secretary Clinton’s Policy Planning Staff.  Before that, he was the Head of the U.S. Antarctic Treaty Secretariat, and prior to this, was the Senior Advisor for nuclear energy and multilateral nuclear nonproliferation with the Department of Energy at the American Embassy in Moscow from 2006-08. He directed the Office of Oceans and Polar Affairs at the State Department before that, and has a long history of work in oceans and polar affairs, including serving as the State Department’s lead Arctic and Antarctic negotiator during the formative period of polar cooperation during the 1980s/90s. He was the Chairman of the Arctic Council during the U.S. chairmanship in 1998-2000, and, in recognition of his polar efforts, there is a small mountain peak in Antarctica near the Beardmore Glacier named Mt. Arnaudo. He also served at the American Embassy in London as the Science and Environment Counselor and the U.S. Permanent Representation to the U.N. International Maritime Organization.

Mr. Arnaudo received his B.A. degree from Stanford University and his M.A. from the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and served in the U.S. Army. He is a native San Franciscan and married to Rose Gottemoeller.