Lakhdar Brahimi was special representative of the UN secretary general and head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (200104), where he led the implementation of the Peace Agreement reached at the Bonn conference, which he had chaired. He also served as the secretary-general's special envoy for Afghanistan from July 1997 until October 1999.
Thomas R. Pickering, vice chairman of the international consulting firm Hills and Company, has had a career spanning five decades as a U.S.diplomat, serving as under secretary of state for political affairs and ambassador to the United Nations, Russia, and India, as well as to Israel, Nigeria, Jordan, and El Salvador.