Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Via AP news wire

Biden names major Democratic donors as UK, Brazil envoys

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced his intention to nominate prominent Democratic fundraiser Jane Hartley to serve as ambassador to the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland and major donor Alan Leventhal to serve as his envoy to Denmark.

The White House also announced Biden would nominate longtime diplomat and attorney Elizabeth Bagley to serve as ambassador to Brazil and career senior foreign service officer Alexander Laskaris to serve in Chad.

The Associated Press reported in July that Biden had settled on Hartley for the high-profile U.K. ambassadorship. She served as ambassador to France and Monaco during the Obama administration. She was a significant fundraiser for Biden’s 2020 presidential race and has been a big supporter of Democratic candidates over the years.

Hartley serves on the board of trustees of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and is a member of the board of overseers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She is also chairman of the board of trustees of Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind “Sesame Street.”

Leventhal is the chairman and CEO of Beacon Capital, one of the leading owners and managers of office properties in the U.S., and was among several Wall Street bundlers who helped Biden raise money for his 2020 campaign.

Presidents have typically rewarded donors and key supporters with sought-after ambassadorships. About 44% of Donald Trump’s ambassadorial appointments were political appointees, compared with 31% for Barack Obama and 32% for George W. Bush, according to the American Foreign Service Association. Biden hopes to keep political appointments to about 30% of ambassador picks, according to an administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk about internal discussions.

Bagley, an attorney, held diplomatic positions in the Clinton and Obama administrations, including stints as a senior adviser to Secretaries of State John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and Madeline Albright. She served U.S. ambassador to Portugal during the Clinton administration.

Laskaris is currently a senior adviser in the Bureau of African Affairs at the State Department. He has also served as deputy to the commander at the United States Africa Command, ambassador to the Guinea, and as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Burundi.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.