Richard Celeste
Ambassador Richard Celeste is a Senior Director of Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy firm, where he advises clients on India-related issues. From 1997 to 2001, he served as the U.S. Ambassador to India, where he has long-standing relationships both at senior levels of the Indian government and among leading private sector companies.
Ambassador Celeste currently serves as President of Colorado College in Colorado Springs, CO, a position he has held since July 2002. Previously, Mr. Celeste served two terms as Governor of Ohio (from 1982 to 1990) and Lieutenant Governor of Ohio (from 1974 to 1978).
Ambassador Celeste also served as Managing Partner of Celeste and Sabety Ltd., an economic development consultancy (from 1991-1997), and Director of the U.S. Peace Corps (from 1979-1981).
Ambassador Celeste is president of the Colorado Springs Downtown Partnership, a Trustee of Glimcher Realty Trust and is Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Health Effects Institute in Boston. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Garden City Company and The Associated Colleges of the Midwest.
He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a lifetime National Associate of the National Academies, and is an advisory board member of the Institute of International Education.
Ambassador Celeste formerly served on the boards of the North American Advisory Board for BP Oil in Cleveland, the Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board, Navistar International, Republic Engineered Steels, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Leadership Institute of the University of Southern California, the American Council on Education and The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.
He also Co-Chaired the Pacific Council’s International Policy Task Force for Study on India and Chaired the Great Lakes Governors Association. Mr. Celeste earned his B.A. in History from Yale University and studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University.