Dr. Leslie Vinjamuri is the president and CEO of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. She joined the Council in 2025 from the Royal Institute of International Affairs, known as Chatham House, in London, where she served as director of the US and the Americas program and dean of the Queen Elizabeth II Academy for Leadership in International Affairs. Dr. Vinjamuri is Professor of Practice in International Relations and Diplomacy at SOAS University of London, where she was previously Professor of International Relations (tenured). She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and vice chair of the Carnegie Council for Ethics and International Affairs. She was a Marshall Commissioner from 2019-2026

Dr. Vinjamuri is expert on the US, geopolitics, and international order. She has led research teams of high-level experts on critical issues of geopolitics, multilateralism, international order, and the global south.

She was previously director of the Centre on Conflict, Rights and Justice, and later co-Chair of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS University of London. Dr. Vinjamuri worked in the Asia Bureau at USAID and at the Congressional Research Service. She served on the faculty of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and had held fellowships at Harvard University and the London School of Economics. Dr. Vinjamuri sits on the advisory boards of Princeton University's Reimagining World Order, LSE US Centre, and LSE IDEAS.

Her research has been supported by leading foundations, including the Rockefeller Foundation, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, the British Academy, the Open Society Foundations, and the Smith Richardson Foundation. She is a regular contributor to international broadcast media, especially CNN, Bloomberg, and BBC.

Dr. Vinjamuri received a BA from Wesleyan University (Phi Beta Kappa), an MSc (Distinction) from the London School of Economics, and a PhD from Columbia University.