Senator George Mitchell has served the cause of peace with distinction for decades.

After serving with distinction in the United States Senate, he presided over the peace negotiations in Northern Ireland that culminated in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Liberty Medal in recognition of his efforts.

At the request of President Clinton, Mitchell brought his peace-building expertise to the Middle East in 2000. He led a fact-finding commission that explored the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and issued a report in 2001 that proposed solutions to bring the violence to an end. In 2009, he was called upon again to foster peace when President Obama appointed him as his Special Envoy to the Middle East until May 2011.

In addition to his efforts to broker peace around the world, Mitchell served in the Senate for 15 years and was Senate Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995. He was voted the “most respected member” of the Senate for six consecutive years by a bipartisan group of senior congressional aides. For his work in support of peace he has been awarded the Truman Institute Peace Prize, the German Peace Prize and the United Nations (UNESCO) Peace Prize.

Senator Mitchell has served on a number of prominent corporations. He is the former Chairman of the Board of the Walt Disney Company. He has been a director of the Boston Red Sox, Federal Express, Xerox, Staples, Unilever and Starwood Hotels and Resorts. He served as Chancellor of Queen’s University in Belfast for ten years, as President of the Economic Club of Washington and as Chairman of the International Crisis Group.

Mitchell is a strong supporter of Seeds of Peace and its graduates, proud that his home state of Maine hosts the Seeds of Peace Camp each summer. He served as honorary chairman of the Seeds of Peace Gamechangers initiative in Ireland and launched the organization’s Forum on Conflict and Diplomacy.