Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat is an American diplomat, attorney and celebrated author. Among other prestigious postings, he served as the United States Ambassador to the European Union from 1993 to 1996 and as the United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2001. During the Clinton Administration, Ambassador Eizenstat served as Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State on Holocaust-Era Issues. In this role, he successfully negotiated agreements with the Swiss, German, Austrian and French governments, and other European countries, covering restitution of property, payment for slave and forced laborers, recovery of looted art, bank accounts, and payment of insurance policies. His award-winning book, Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor, and the Unfinished Business of World War II (PublicAffairs 2003), has been translated into German, French, Czech and Hebrew. He currently serves as a partner at the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Covington and Burling, heading the firm's international practice. He is also a senior strategist at APCO Worldwide, a business strategy and stakeholder engagement firm. Ambassador Eizenstat has worked with law firms on behalf of AIPR and provided critical guidance and advice towards the founding of the Auschwitz Institute in 2007. Reflecting on his work with AIPG, Ambassador Eizenstat said:
The Auschwitz Institute's goal of building a worldwide network of leaders with the personal and professional commitment to prevent genocide represents not only the most creative response to the cry of "never again" that emerged from the Holocaust but also the most effective. For five decades, Auschwitz-Birkenau, site of the worst mass atrocity in human history, served as a memorial to the dead and a place of grieving for the living. By locating their genocide prevention programs here, the Auschwitz Institute has given the site a new life, and with it a new purpose. I believe the work of the Auschwitz Institute represents the best hope for diminishing the scourge of genocide, opening space for the full expression of human potential in every sphere of society.