Leslie H. Gelb has lived in the worlds of journalism, government, and and think tanks. He is now President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations after serving as its president for 10 years. He was a columnist, editor and correspondent for the New York Times and a Pulitzer Prize winner. He served as an Assistant Secretary of State for Politico-Military Affairs in the Carter Administration, Director of Policy Planning in the Pentagon under Lyndon B. Johnson as well as Director of the Pentagon Papers Project, and as Executive Assistant to Senator Jacob Javits.

He holds a BA from Tufts, as well as an MA and PhD from Harvard. He has written a number of books, including most recently "Power Rules" and "Vietnam: The System Worked", which Brookings recently republished as a "Brookings Classic".

He has served, and still serves on many business boards, scholarly magazine boards, such as The National Interest, and Democracy, as well as being a founding board member of Iraq/Afghan Vets of America.

He was married to Judith Cohen Gelb in 1959 -- and still is. They have 3 children.