47 Years of Reporting
Karen Elliott House is a distinguished journalist and author with a four- decade-
long career covering global politics. She earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for her coverage
of the Middle East.
Ms. House joined The Wall Street Journal’s Washington bureau in 1974 covering
first regulatory agencies, energy and then foreign policy in 1978. Because Egypt’s
President Anwar Sadat had just made his ground-breaking visit to Jerusalem, the Middle
East was the key topic of her focus, taking her to visit Egypt, Israel, Syria, Jordan and
Saudi Arabia. She continued to visit those countries for decade interviewing leaders
there including Jordan’s King Hussein, Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, and numerous
Israeli leaders including Menachem Begin and Benjamin Netanyahu.
Beyond the Mideast she has breakfasted with Maggie Thatcher, lunched with
Deng Xiaoping and dined with Richard Nixon. Indeed, she has interviewed virtually
every world leader of consequence in the past three decades including Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein (one of a very few journalists to meet him before he was hanged in
2006) Vladimir Putin, Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman whom she’s met with more than a half-dozen times.
Beyond her work as a WSJ reporter, she also is the author of two books: On Saudi
Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines—and Future, published by Knopf in 2012
and The Man Who Would Be King: Mohammed bin Salman and the Transformation of
Saudi Arabia published in 2025 by Harper Collins.
Ms. House served as Publisher of The Wall Street Journal, from 2002 until her
retirement in 2006. In that role she was responsible for all news, editorial, sales and other
business functions of The Wall Street Journal and its editions around the world. From
1989 to 2002 she served as vice president international and then president international of
Dow Jones, responsible for The Wall Street Journal’s print editions in Asia and Europe as
well as for magazine and television ventures overseas.
Since her retirement, Ms. House has been a Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and also taught Mideast Politics at
Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy for three years.
During a 32-year career with Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal, Ms. House
also served as foreign editor, diplomatic correspondent, and energy correspondent based
in Washington D.C. Beyond the Pulitzer Prize, her journalism awards include two
Overseas Press Club awards for coverage of the Middle East and of Islam and the Edwin
M. Hood award for Excellence in Diplomatic Reporting for a series on Saudi Arabia
(1982).
She has served and continues to serve on multiple non-profit boards including the
Rand Corp, Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Asia Society,
the German-American Council, and Boston University. She also is a member of the
advisory board of the College of Communication at the University of Texas.
She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin where in 1996 she was the
recipient of the University’s “Distinguished Alumnus” award. She studied and taught at
Harvard University’s Institute of Politics in 1982 and she holds honorary degrees from
Boston University (2003) and Lafayette College (1992). Ms. House is married and is the
mother of four children ages 31-52.
