John Rakolta Jr. is the Chairman of Walbridge, a privately held construction company founded in Detroit in 1916. He is also a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and Commissioner General of Expo Dubai 2020 from 2019 to 2021. He played a major role in the signing of the Israel–U.A.E.–U.S.A. Abraham Peace Accords.
Rakolta has received the Michiganian of the Year award, New Detroit’s Leadership in Race Relations Award, the Romanian National Order of Merit, the United Arab Emirates Zayed II Medal, the U.S. National Security Medal, the Urban Land Institute Michigan Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship. He also served as the Chair of the Growing Michigan Together Council and the Chair of the 2024 Detroit Policy Conference.
Rakolta earned a degree in Civil Engineering from Marquette University. He also completed the Smaller Company Management Program, now called OPM, at the Harvard Business School.