Matthew Bryza was a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center and the Atlantic Council in Turkey.
He was the director of the International Center for Defence studies in Tallinn, Estonia. He resides in Istanbul, where he also works as a business consultant and board member of several private companies.
Ambassador Bryza completed a twenty-three-year career as a US diplomat. His final assignment was as US ambassador to Azerbaijan from February 2011 to January 2012. From 2005 to 2009, Ambassador Bryza served as deputy assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, with responsibility for the South Caucasus, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, and Eurasian energy. Ambassador Bryza simultaneously served as the US co-chair of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk Group, mediating the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and as US mediator of the Cyprus, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia conflicts.
During 2001 to 2005, Ambassador Bryza served in the White House as director for European and European Affairs on the National Security Council staff. His responsibilities included the South Caucasus, Central Asia, Eurasian energy, and political Islam in Eurasia.
Previous assignments include deputy to the special adviser to the president and secretary of state on Caspian Energy, and political officer at the US missions to Russia (1995-97) and Poland (1989-91).