University of Southern Maine

Harold Pachios
Preti, Flaherty, Beliveau, Pachios, & Haley, LLC

Harold C. Pachios is a member of the United State Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. He was first nominated by President Clinton and confirmed by the Senate in 1993. In 1999 he was appointed Chairman of the Commission and served in that capacity until May 2003. President Bush nominated him to a new term on the Commission in 2003. The Commission was created by Congress in 1948 to provide bipartisan oversight of U.S. government activities intended to understand, inform, and influence foreign publics.

In June 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell appointed Mr. Pachios to a special panel to investigate the causes of anti-americanism in the Arab and Muslim world. The panel released its report, Changing Minds, Winning Peace , in October 2003.

His prior government service includes three years as deputy congressional liaison for the Peace Corps during that agency's earliest years (1961-1964). In 1965, President Johnson appointed him Associate White House Press Secretary where he served as principal aide to Press Secretary Bill Moyers.

From August 1968 until November of that year, Mr. Pachios served as director of scheduling and advance in the Vice Presidential Campaign Staff of U.S. Senator Edmund S. Muskie, and then began the private practice of law. He lives in Cape Elizabeth, Maine and is managing partner in the Portland law firm of Preti, Flaherty, Beliveau, Pachios & Haley.

He is currently Northeast Regional Co-Chairman and a member of the Executive Committee of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. He is also Chairman of the Board of Visitors of the University of Maine School of Law.

Mr. Pachios was Chairman of the Maine Democratic Party for four years, and was the Democratic nominee for Congress in Maine's First Congressional District in 1980. In addition, he has served as chairman of the committee appointed by U.S. Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell to develop proposals for reform of federal campaign finance laws.

He is past President of the Board of Trustees of the Portland Symphony Orchestra, past President of the National Committee for the Symphony Orchestra Support, and served as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Symphony Orchestra League.

He has been a trustee of the Maine College of Art and of Maine Maritime Academy, director of the Portland Boys Club and other local civic organizations. He is a lifetime trustee of the American College of Greece, the second largest university in Greece. He currently serves on the Board of the Salzburg Seminar. He also served as a member of the legislative commitee of the United States Olympic Committee.

Mr. Pachios received an A.B. degree in 1959 from Princeton University and a J.D. from Georgetown University. He served two years as a naval officer.

He has two sons, Christopher and Peter.

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