George W. Landau was Senior Advisor to the President of Coca-Cola Latin America since March 1988. He was President of the Americas Society and the Council of the Americas from July I, 1985, until September 30, 1993, following a distinguished career in the U.S. Foreign Service. The Americas Society is the premier national, not-for-profit public policy institution devoted exclusively to informing Americans about countries comprising the community of nations in the Western Hemisphere. Its affiliate, the Council of the Americas, is a business association of more than two hundred U.S. multinational corporations doing business in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada.

Prior to entering the Foreign Service, Ambassador Landau worked in the private sector from 1947 to 1957. He subsequently served as Commercial Attaché and Chief of the Economic Section at the U.S. Embassy in Montevideo, Uruguay, and while there was a member of the U.S. Delegation that created the “Alliance for Progress”. From 1962 to 1965, he was First Secretary and Political Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Spain, and from 1966-1972 served as the State Department’s Country Director for Spain and Portugal in the Bureau of European Affairs.

In 1972 he was appointed United States Ambassador to Paraguay, where he served until 1977. From there he went on direct transfer as Ambassador to Chile, where he remained until 1982. He was Ambassador to Venezuela from 1982 to 1985. Ambassador Landau holds the rank of Career Minister in the Senior Foreign Service and received the State Department’s “Superior Honor Award” for his work in the negotiation of the 1970 Spanish Base Agreement and the 1971 Azores Basing Agreement with Portugal. He was awarded the “Presidential Meritorious Service Award” in 1984, and has been decorated by the Governments of Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela.

George Landau attended New York University and graduated from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. where in May 1988 he received an honorary degree (Doctor of Public Service). He was inducted into the U.S. Army as a private in 1942 and left Active Duty Status in 1947 as a Captain, Military Intelligence. He retired from the Army Reserve with the rank of Colonel in 1975. Among his decorations are the Army Commendation Medal and the Meritorious Service Medal.

Ambassador Landau is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and The American Academy of Diplomacy. He served on the Board of Governors of the Metropolitan Club of New York and is also a member of the Metropolitan Club of Washington, D.C., the American Foreign Service Association, and DACOR.

Ambassador Landau wasa Board member of Emigrant Savings Bank, the Brazil Equity Fund, Chile Fund, Latin American Investment Fund, Latin American Equity Fund, Emerging Markets Telecommunications Fund, Emerging Markets Infrastructure Fund, the Global Asset Management Funds, and the Fundación Chile in Santiago, Chile. He is President of the Council of Advisors, Latin America of Guardian Industries. He served on the Advisory Committee of the Export-Import Bank in 1990 and 1991.
Ambassador Landau married the former Maria A. Jobst in 1947. They have two sons – Robert, a former Deputy Commissioner of Labor for the State of Alaska who now practices law in Anchorage; and Christopher, a partner in the law firm Kirkland & Ellis, Washington, D.C. Ambassador George Landau passed away on October 9, 2018 at the age of 98 years old.