Bruce Pickering

Vice President, Global Programs and Executive Director
Asia Society of Northern California
San Francisco, CA

Dr. N. Bruce Pickering is Vice President of Global Programs at Asia Society, overseeing cross-Center program initiatives throughout the organization’s global network. Appointed in July 2012, he is based in San Francisco, where has served as Executive Director for Northern California since 2003. Pickering currently serves on the ChinaSF Advisory Board and the advisory council of USC’s Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBEAR).

Prior to joining Asia Society, Pickering was Director of Public Affairs and Development at the Graduate School of Journalism and Special Assistant to the Director of the Institute of East Asian Studies at UC Berkeley. Before that, he was Program Director of the World Affairs Council from 1997-1999, and Executive Director of the US-Japan 21st Century Project, a commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Treaty of Peace with Japan, which was signed in San Francisco in 1951. He is a former Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State, serving from 1981 to 1993, and specializing in Political and Arms Control issues. He was Deputy Political Counsel on the U.S. Delegation to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Vienna during the collapse of the Soviet Union and the creation of the “New Europe” from 1988-1992. Pickering holds a doctorate in History from the University of California at Berkeley and an MA in Political Science from Stanford University.