Eric Schwartz

Eric Schwartz is Executive Director of the Connect US Fund. From August 2005 through January 2007, he served as the UN Secretary-General's Deputy Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery. Before this UN appointment, Mr. Schwartz served as a lead expert for the congressionally mandated Mitchell-Gingrich Task Force on United Nations Reform. Prior to that, in 2003 and 2004, he served as the second-ranking official at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. From 1993 to 2001, Mr. Schwartz served at the National Security Council, ultimately as Senior Director and Special Assistant to the President for Multilateral and Humanitarian Affairs. He managed Administration responses on a range of peacekeeping, humanitarian and refugee issues. He also had responsibilities for rule of law and human rights issues, and initiated and managed the White House review that resulted in U.S. signature of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. From 1989 to 1993, Mr. Schwartz served as Staff Consultant to the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs. Prior to his work on the Subcommittee, he served as Washington Director of the human rights organization Asia Watch (now known as Human Rights Watch-Asia). He has degrees from the State University of New York at Binghamton, Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and New York University School of Law. He is also a visiting lecturer of public and international affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School.