Appointments and Resignations

U.S. Ambassador to Bulgaria: Who Is Eric Rubin?

Eric Seth Rubin was nominated Sept. 15, 2015, to be U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria. He joined the Foreign Service in 1985 and showed expertise on Eastern Europe. In 2008 he became deputy chief of the Moscow mission. In 2011, he came back to the U.S. to serve at the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, where he was at the time of his nomination. read more

Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration: Who Is Sarah Feinberg?

Feinberg worked on Obama’s 2008 campaign and transition team. After the election, Emanuel brought her into the White House as his senior advisor. She left government service in 2010 to be Bloomberg’s Director of Communications and Business Strategy. The following year, Feinberg decamped for Facebook as its director of corporate and strategic communications. She returned to the Obama administration in 2013 as chief of staff to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. read more

Director of the Congressional Budget Office: Who Is Keith Hall?

With Republicans in charge of Congress, Hall was an easy choice for them when Doug Elmendorf’s term expired in 2015. Hall opposes government spending to curb poverty, instead wanting to increase the labor supply. He also is against the Affordable Care Act, saying “it raises the costs of production.” He even opposes Social Security disability benefits saying they’re an incentive for people not to work. SSID benefits top out at $2,663 a month and average $1,165. read more

U.S. Ambassador to Haiti: Who Is Peter Mulrean?

Mulrean’s tour in Kabul began in 2011, when he served as State Department director for interagency provincial affairs. He returned to Geneva the following year as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. mission to the UN. In 2014, he made news by criticizing Vietnam’s civil rights policies at the quadrennial UN review of that country. read more

U.S. Ambassador to Estonia: Who Is Jim Melville?

In 2010, Melville returned to the United States to become executive director of the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs and International Organization Affairs, providing support to 79 U.S. missions under those umbrellas. Melville returned to Berlin in August 2012 as deputy chief of mission, serving for a time in 2013 as chargé d’affaires. read more

Nepal’s Ambassador to the United States: Who Is Arjun Karki?

On January 16, 2015, Arjun Kumar Karki, a longtime activist in his country, was appointed to be Nepal’s ambassador to the United States. As a student in Nepal, Karki was arrested and tortured for his activism, according to a biography on his Facebook page. In his professional career, Karki has been involved with many non-governmental organizations in Nepal, often several at the same time. read more

U.S. Ambassador to Togo: Who Is David Gilmour?

In 2011, Gilmour returned to Washington as the director of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in the State Department’s Africa Bureau. In August 2013, he was moved up to be deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of African Affairs, the position he holds as he awaits confirmation for the Togo post. read more

Tunisia’s Ambassador to the United States: Who Is Fayçal Gouia?

On May 18, 2015, President Barack Obama accepted the credentials of Fayçal Gouia, a longtime member of his country’s foreign service, to be Tunisia’s Ambassador to the United States. It’s the second time Gouia has been posted to his country’s embassy in Washington. Gouia’s first assignment to the Tunisian Embassy in Washington came in 1995, first as cultural and press counselor, followed in 1997 as economic and commercial counselor and beginning in 1999 as deputy chief of mission. read more

U.S. Ambassador to Mongolia: Who Is Jennifer Zimdahl Galt?

Galt returned to Washington in 2008 as deputy director of the Office of Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs. She was sent to North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, in 2010, first as public affairs advisor and the following year as senior public affairs advisor. Galt went back to China in 2012 as the consul general in Guangzhou, supervising the 400-person office there. read more

Administrator of the General Services Administration: Who Is Denise Turner Roth?

Raised by her mother, who cleaned houses for a living, Roth grew up in the Anacostia neighborhood of southeast Washington D.C. “There were times,” she has said, “when it was five of us in a two-bedroom apartment and there were times when there were just two of us. There were times when the lights were on and times when they weren't. I know what it means to have the food truck come and get cheese and bread.” read more

U.S. Ambassador to the Central African Republic: Who Is Jeffrey J. Hawkins?

In 2008, Hawkins was named a deputy chief of mission again, this time in Luanda, Angola. He returned to Washington in 2010 to be director of the Office of Near East and South and Central Asia in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, where he managed human rights programs. In 2012, Hawkins was sent to Lagos, Nigeria as consul general. read more

Brazil’s Ambassador to the United States: Who Is Luiz Alberto Figueiredo?

Figueiredo found himself on the other end of the get-fired-and-sent-to-America treatment later that year when Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff fired him hours before her second inauguration, allegedly for not having enough experience or knowledge about business as Brazil attempts to grow its economy. In July 2015, a document released by WikiLeaks revealed that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) began targeting Figueiredo’s cell phone in March 2011. read more

U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag, Scourge of Medical Marijuana, is Quitting

President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder would periodically make sounds about lightening up on states where medical marijuana is legal (now 23) despite federal laws banning the drug. And then Haag, a 2010 appointee of President Obama, would bust a bunch of dispensaries and give voice to a far less conciliatory policy. read more

U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia: Who Is William Heidt?

Heidt was posted to the United Nations in New York in 2007 as a counselor for economic and social affairs. He returned to Poland in 2009 to serve as deputy chief of mission in the Warsaw embassy. Since 2012, Heidt has been executive assistant to the Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy and Environment. read more

Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation: Who Is W. Thomas Reeder?

Reeder moved to the Senate Finance Committee as senior benefits counsel for the Democratic staff May 2009. He returned to the Treasury Department in March 2013 as senior benefits counsel for the Internal Revenue Service. read more

U.S. Ambassador to Nepal: Who Is Alaina Teplitz?

Much of her work was with information technology systems, getting IT policies in international outposts to mesh with those prescribed by Washington, and other efforts at standardization to make the systems more efficient. Part of her mandate was also to look for cost-savings by contracting out some jobs and ensuring that missions were not overstaffed. read more