Currently Vice Chairman at Hills and Company which provides advice and counsel to a number of major US enterprises, retired as Senior Vice President International Relations and a member of the Executive Council of the Boeing Company on July 1, 2006. He was responsible for The Boeing Company's relations with foreign governments and the company's globalization. Pickering holds the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the U.S. Foreign Service. In a diplomatic career spanning five decades, he was U.S. ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. In 1983 and in 1986, Pickering won the Distinguished Presidential Award and the Distinguished Service Award. He is a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies and the Council on Foreign Relations.