William Crowe

Admiral William J. Crowe Jr., currently is Chairman of the Board of Advisors at GlobalOptions, a crisis management firm based in Washington. Previously, he was the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1994-97) and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1985–89). In 1998–1999, he chaired the State Department Accountability Review Boards for the embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi.

A native of Oklahoma, Admiral Crowe graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1946. His early naval career was in submarines and he served as the Assistant Naval Attache to President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954-55. Later, he commanded US Naval Forces in the Persian Gulf, with headquarters in Bahrain. In 1980, Admiral Crowe was named the Commander in Chief of Allied Forces Southern Europe, the NATO command responsible for Italy, Turkey and Greece, as well as the Mediterranean area. Subsequently, he commanded the US Pacific Command before President Reagan named him the 11th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1985.

After retirement from the military in 1989, Admiral Crowe was the University Professor of Geopolitics at the University of Oklahoma. His book, In Line of Fire, was published by Simon and Schuster in 1993. He served on the Boards of Directors of Merrill Lynch, Texaco, General Dynamics, Norfolk & Southern and Pfizer. Since returning to Washington from his post in London, Admiral Crowe chairs the Board of the International Program Center of the University of Oklahoma and is a Trustee of Princeton University. In August 2000, President Clinton presented the nation's highest award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to Admiral Crowe.

Admiral Crowe holds a Masters degree in Education from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton University. In 1997-98, he was the Shapiro Visiting Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University. He presently holds the Olin Fellowship Chair at the US Naval Academy. He is married to the former Shirley Grennell of Okeene, Oklahoma, and they have three children. They reside in Alexandria, Virginia.