Ford M. Fraker was sworn in on April 11, 2007 as US Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and served until April 2009. Born in Princeton, NJ, Fraker graduated cum laude from Harvard University in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.
A banker in the Middle East for more than 30 years, Fraker began his career with Chemical Bank where he worked from 1972 to 1979. He worked in Lebanon, the UAE, and Bahrain, ending as a vice president and regional manager for the bank’s Bahrain office. He joined the Saudi International Bank in 1979 and worked for SIB until 1991, holding positions of increasing management responsibility in the bank’s general banking, credit and client development units. When he left SIB in 1991, Fraker was serving on the bank’s management committee.
Fraker founded Fraker & Co. in 1991, and in 1993, he joined MeesPierson Investment Finance (UK) Limited, where he was the managing director responsible for placing US and European investment products with European and Middle Eastern institutional and private investors. In 1997, he co-founded Trinity Group Limited, a private investment banking firm in the United Kingdom, serving as managing director and chairman until his nomination by President Bush. He was also serving as a consultant for Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation in Boston, MA, at that time.
After leaving his post as ambassador, Fraker joined the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) as a senior advisor.
Fraker speaks French and Arabic.