John B Ritch III joined the World Nuclear Association (WNA) as its Director General in 2000, after seven years as US ambassador to UN organisations in Vienna, among them the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization. In Vienna, he was active in promoting the IAEA's strengthened safeguards system and new conventions on nuclear safety. He participated in the US-North Korea nuclear negotiations, and in the UN conferences reviewing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1995 and 2000. Previously, Ambassador Ritch was a staff adviser to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee for 22 years, specialising in East-West relations and nuclear arms control. During that period he was also an entrepreneur, heading a real estate development company and co-founding a multinational enterprise marketing fitness-related products throughout Europe. He is a graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point and holds a master's degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.

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