Appointments and Resignations
Administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service: Who Is Kevin Shea?
Agency veteran Kevin Shea was appointed administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) in the U.S. Department of Agriculture on June 18, 2013. From 1992 to 2000 Shea was director of budget and accounting, and from 2000 to 2004 he was deputy administrator for policy and program development. Shea served as associate administrator from September 2004 to May 2012. He has been acting administrator since then. read more
Another Banking Regulator Goes through the Golden Revolving Door
Khuzami, who once referred to the concept of the revolving door as a “myth” that creates “unfounded cynicism about public institutions and public servants,” will be required to wait one year before he can represent Kirkland clients before the SEC. read more
Ambassador to Belgium: Who Is Denise Bauer?
Bauer hosted multiple fundraisers and raised $4.3 million for the President’s two election campaigns, served on the Obama for America National Finance Committee from 2007 to 2008 and from 2011 to 2012, and was Finance Chair for Women for Obama from 2011 to 2012. She was also on the Democratic National Committee from 2008 to 2012, serving as chair and co-chair of the Women’s Leadership Forum and as co-chair of the National Issues Conference. read more
Ambassador from Israel: Who Is Ron Dermer?
Ron Dermer, an ex-American who has been a close political advisor to Netanyahu for the past four years, once called the “two-state solution”—for decades Washington’s preferred outcome to the Israeli-Palestinian impasse—“childish.” read more
Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor: Who Is Tom Malinowski?
Malinowski repeatedly criticized various aspects of President Obama’s policies, which should prove interesting once he finds himself a member of the Obama administration. For example, Malinowski had opposed indefinite imprisonment without trial, supported the acknowledgment of Uzbekistan’s dictator is a dictator, praised the honesty of State Department officials regarding Tunisia’s dictator as revealed in cables published by WikiLeaks—but not spoken in public. read more
Ambassador to Greece: Who Is David Pearce?
Pearce’s stint in Algeria coincided with increased cooperation between the Algerian government and the U.S. government in the battle against al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a partnership that included providing the Algerians with military radios and fingerprint identification kits, not to mention Boeing-made airplanes and gas-powered turbines. In exchange, the U.S. imported billions of dollars worth of Algerian oil and natural gas. read more
Ambassador to Lebanon: Who Is David Hale?
David Hale, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service who has served in Beirut twice before, has been special envoy for Middle East peace since June 2011, having served as deputy special envoy under his predecessor, former Sen. George J. Mitchell (D-Maine), from 2009 to 2011. read more
Ambassador to Chile: Who Is Michael Hammer?
Hammer served as political aide to ambassador Phillip Goldberg in La Paz, Bolivia, from 2007 to September 2008, when Goldberg was expelled after a series of incidents suggested that the embassy was engaged in espionage and fomenting discontent against the government.
Back in Washington, Hammer was again detailed to the National Security Council, serving at the White House as special assistant to President Obama, senior director for press and communications, and NSC spokesman.
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Ambassador to Peru: Who Is Brian Nichols?
From August 2007 to July 2010, he served as deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Bogotá, Colombia.
Starting in August 2010, Nichols served in the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), first as INL’s deputy assistant secretary and then, beginning May 25, 2011, as principal deputy assistant secretary.
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Ambassador to Cote d’Ivoire: Who Is Terence McCulley?
McCulley received his first ambassadorship when President George W. Bush nominated him to be ambassador to Mali in May 2005; confirmed by the Senate in June, McCulley served three years in Bamako.
After serving as deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, from 2008 to 2010, McCulley served as ambassador to Nigeria starting in August 2010.
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Ambassador to the Dominican Republic: Who Is James “Wally” Brewster Jr.?
The president’s nomination of James “Wally” Brewster to be the next ambassador to the Dominican Republic, however, has been greeted with an ugly example of homophobic hostility—with the nation’s highest ranking Catholic official as the ringleader. During a press conference last week, Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez, who is currently archbishop of Santo Domingo, referred to Brewster as a “maricón”—a derogatory terms that is usually translated in the U.S. as “faggot.” read more
Ambassador to Ethiopia: Who Is Patricia Haslach?
From 2002-2004, Haslach oversaw the multi-billion-dollar reconstruction program intended to fix some of the damage caused by war. Haslach then served two straight stints as an ambassador, first as ambassador to Laos from 2004 to 2007, and then as ambassador to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, headquartered in Singapore, from 2007 to 2009. read more
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs: Who Is Linda Thomas-Greenfield?
In April 1994 she was sent to Rwanda, but two days after she arrived, the plane of Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down, and the Rwandan genocide broke out. Six-feet tall and black, Thomas-Greenfield was mistaken for a Tutsi. Hutu soldiers held a machine gun to her head, while she begged for her life: “I don't have anything to do with this. I'm not a Rwandan. I'm an American.” She then watched as the soldiers killed a Tutsi gardener. read more
Ambassador to Laos: Who Is Dan Clune?
Clune has been the State Department’s point man in its process of deciding whether to permit TransCanada (2012 revenues: CAN$8 billion) to build the proposed 2,000-mile long, $7 billion Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, which would deliver tar sands crude oil from Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast. read more
Director of the Office of Personnel Management: Who Is Katherine Archuleta?
Archuleta served as a senior advisor on policy and initiatives from October 2005 to May 2009, working closely with Mayor John Hickenlooper.
After the election of Barack Obama in 2008, Archuleta served as chief of staff to Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis from 2009 to 2011. She was then appointed national political director for Obama for America, i.e., the President’s re-election campaign, a position she held from 2011 to 2012.
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Ambassador to Australia: Who Is John Berry?
The next ambassador to Australia will be a longtime federal administrator and Barack Obama supporter, who will also be the first openly gay envoy to the land down under. If confirmed by the Senate, Morrell John Berry, who goes by his middle name, would succeed Jeffrey Bleich, who served in Canberra starting in November 2009. Berry has been director of the Office of Personnel Management since April 2009. read more