Richard Green Lugar

Richard Lugar is the President and Chairman of the Board at the The Lugar Center. He is the former U.S. Senator from Indiana and a Distinguished Scholar & Professor of Practice in the School of Global and International Studies in Indiana University. Lugar was the U.S. Senate's most senior Republican and longest serving Member of Congress in Indiana history. He was twice the Republican leader of the Foreign Relations Committee and a member and former chairman of the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. During his 36 years as senator, he had a 98% attendance record. As a senator, he was a leader in reducing the threat of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. In 1991, he forged a bipartisan partnership with then-Senate Armed Services Chairman, Sam Nunn, to destroy these weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union. As Chairman of the Agriculture Committee, he built bipartisan support for 1996 federal farm program reforms. He promoted broader risk management options for farmers, research advancements, increased export opportunities and higher net farm income. He initiated a biofuels research program to help decrease U.S. dependency on foreign oil. He also led initiatives to streamline the U.S. Department of Agriculture, reform the food stamp program and preserve the federal school lunch program. Prior to serving in the Senate he was a two-term mayor of Indianapolis. While mayor he served as President of the National League of Cities. Currently, Senator Lugar serves as President of The Lugar Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to solving global issues including global food security, foreign aid effectiveness, WMD nonproliferation, and bipartisan governance.