Rick Waters

Rick Waters is senior director for the Indo-Pacific at Exxon Mobil. He joined the corporation after a 27-year career that culminated in his role as the U.S. State Department’s top China policy official. In that role, he oversaw the creation of the Office of China Coordination, informally known as the China House, and concurrently served as deputy assistant secretary of state for China and Taiwan. He also held multiple roles at the U.S. embassy in Beijing, including during the period between the accidental U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade (1999) and the Hainan Island incident (2001). After retiring from government service, Waters served as managing director for Northeast Asia at the Eurasia Group, a global geopolitical risk practice, and as director of Carnegie China.