Mark Gitenstein | |
---|---|
United States Ambassador to the European Union | |
Assumed office January 24, 2022 | |
President | Joe Biden |
Preceded by | Gordon Sondland |
United States Ambassador to Romania | |
In office August 28,2009 –December 14,2012 | |
President | Barack Obama |
Preceded by | Nicholas Taubman |
Succeeded by | Duane Butcher |
Personal details | |
Born | Montgomery,Alabama,U.S. | March 7,1946
Political party | Democratic |
Education | Duke University (BA) Georgetown University (JD) |
Mark Henry Gitenstein (born March 7,1947) is an American lawyer and diplomat who is serving as the United States ambassador to the European Union since 2022. He was nominated by President Joe Biden on July 27,2021, [1] and confirmed by the United States Senate on December 18,2021. He formerly served as the United States ambassador to Romania from 2009 to 2012;he was nominated by President Barack Obama on June 11,2009 [2] and confirmed by the Senate on July 8,2009. [3]
Gitenstein is of Romanian Jewish heritage,as his grandparents were immigrants from Botoșani,Romania in the late-19th century. [4] [5] [6] He attended the Indian Springs School,graduating in 1964. [7] He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University and a Juris Doctor from the Georgetown Law School.
Gitenstein served as chief counsel (1987–1989) and minority chief counsel (1981–1987) to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary,serving under then-Senator Joe Biden. Gitenstein also served as counsel to the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (1975–1978). [8]
He became a partner at Mayer Brown in 1989 and was a "nonresident senior fellow" at the Brookings Institution. [8] [9] He is the author of Matters of Principle,a non-fiction book about the Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination,for which he was awarded the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel award. He has been selected by his peers several times for inclusion in "Best Lawyers in America". [10]
He was also on the advisory board for President-elect Barack Obama's presidential transition team. [11] He was named as a leading choice to lead the Office of Legal Policy in the Department of Justice. [12] but was rejected after public reports of his extensive work as a registered lobbyist for the US Chamber of Commerce. [13]
In 2009 Gitenstein was nominated for the post of U.S. Ambassador to Romania. [14] The Romanian English-language news daily Nine O'Clock selected Ambassador Gitenstein as "The Foreign Diplomat of the Year for 2011." [15] Gitenstein worked to strengthen relations with Romania on a variety of issues,focusing on fighting corruption,improving transparency,and strengthening the rule of law. [16] [17] [18] He actively promoted deeper development of Romania's equity markets,as well as a fair and transparent business environment for all investors. [19] [20] He also encouraged greater private sector involvement in state-owned enterprises (SOEs),including the introduction of a corporate governance code for SOEs. [21] As a means of promoting social change,Gitenstein worked with TechSoup Romania to establish Restart Romania,a project designed to demonstrate the power of the internet and social media to find solutions to social justice problems,support transparency of public institutions,and promote grass roots efforts to fight corruption. [22] [23] The U.S.–Romanian Ballistic Missile Defense Agreement was signed and negotiated during Gitenstein's tenure in Bucharest. [24] Gitenstein travelled to Afghanistan three times to visit U.S. and Romanian troops. [25] [26] He was a human rights advocate for the country's minority Roma population. [27] [28] He was awarded the Star of Romania,the country's highest civilian honor,in 2012.
On September 5,2020,Gitenstein was announced to be a member of the advisory council of the Biden-Harris Transition Team. [29] [30]
On July 27,2021,President Joe Biden announced the nomination of Gitenstein to be the United States ambassador to the European Union. [31] His nomination was sent to the Senate the following day. [32] On September 28,2021,a hearing on his nomination was held before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. [33] On October 19,2021,his nomination was reported favorably out of committee. [34] The United States Senate confirmed him on December 18,2021 by voice vote. Gitenstein presented his credentials to the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on January 24,2022. [35]
He is married to Elizabeth (Libby) Gitenstein and has three children and seven grandchildren. [36]
Denise Campbell Bauer is an American diplomat serving as the United States ambassador to France and Monaco. Bauer served as Ambassador of the United States to Belgium from 2013 to 2017. After being nominated by President Barack Obama, she was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on August 2, 2013; she was sworn in the following August 7. She left office on January 20, 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the executive director of Women for Biden.
Philip Seth Goldberg is an American diplomat and government official who has served as United States ambassador to South Korea since 2022. He served previously as ambassador to the Philippines, Bolivia and Colombia and chief of the U.S. mission in UN-administered Kosovo during the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations. He has served in Washington as assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research. In 2022, he was nominated by President Joe Biden to be the U.S. ambassador to South Korea and was confirmed on May 5, 2022 by the United States Senate through a voice vote.
Patrick Hubert Gaspard is an American former diplomat who serves as president of Center for American Progress (CAP), a liberal think tank.
Barack Obama assumed office as President of the United States on January 20, 2009, and his term ended on January 20, 2017. The president has the authority to nominate members of his Cabinet to the United States Senate for confirmation under the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.
Christopher Henry Schroeder is an American lawyer who served as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel in the Biden Administration from 2021 to 2023. He served as the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy in the United States Department of Justice during the presidency of Barack Obama, serving from April 2010 until December 2012. Before and after his time as Assistant Attorney General, he was the Charles S. Murphy Professor of Law and Professor of Public Policy Studies at Duke University School of Law. He is now Professor Emeritus of the same institution.
Julissa Reynoso Pantaleón is a Dominican-American attorney and diplomat who is the United States Ambassador to Spain and Andorra. Most recently, she was the chief of staff to First Lady Jill Biden. She formerly served as a litigation and international arbitration partner with the international law firm Winston & Strawn LLP. She was previously a partner with Chadbourne & Parke LLP, practicing in the firm's International Arbitration and Latin America groups. Reynoso is also affiliated with the faculty at Columbia University School of Law and the School of International and Public Affairs. From March 2012 until December 2014, she served as United States Ambassador to Uruguay. She is a former deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the United States Department of State. President Biden nominated her to be the next United States Ambassador to Spain on July 27, 2021, being confirmed on December 18, 2021.
Kenneth H. Merten is an American diplomat who is the United States ambassador to Bulgaria since April 2023. Merten has served in various positions in the Department of State beginning in 1987, most notably as ambassador to Haiti from 2009 to 2012, ambassador to Croatia from 2012 to 2015, and special coordinator for Haiti from 2015 to 2017.
Claire D. Cronin is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who currently serves as the United States Ambassador to Ireland. She previously served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from the 11th Plymouth district from 2013 to 2022. Cronin was the first woman to serve as House Majority Leader.
The United States Mission to the European Union (USEU) is the diplomatic mission of the United States to the European Union; it is based in Brussels, Belgium. The US has maintained diplomatic relations with the EU and its predecessors since 1953. The first predecessor of the current mission was the US diplomatic mission to the European Coal and Steel Community in Luxembourg, which opened in 1956. In 1961, the US Mission to the European Communities was established in Brussels, which later became the United States Mission to the European Union, upon the latter's establishment in 1993.
Richard Merrill Mills Jr. is an American diplomat who serves as the United States deputy ambassador to the United Nations. He served as the U.S. Chargé d'Affaires and Acting Permanent Representative to the United Nations between January 20, 2021, and February 24, 2021, when Linda Thomas-Greenfield became ambassador. In July 2022, he was announced as the nominee to serve as the United States ambassador to Nigeria.
Michael Arthur Raynor is an American Foreign Service Officer specializing in relations with Africa who has served as the United States ambassador to Senegal and the United States ambassador to Guinea-Bissau since 2022. He was the United States ambassador to Ethiopia until January 2021. He previously served as the Director of the Office of Career Development and Assignments in the Bureau of Human Resources of the United States Department of State. Raynor served as United States Ambassador to Benin from 2012 to 2015 after being nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Prior to his post in Benin, he was deputy executive director and then executive director of the Bureau of African Affairs.
Alexander Mark Laskaris is an American diplomat who has served as the United States ambassador to Chad since August 2022. He also served as the United States ambassador to Guinea from 2012 to 2015. Laskaris was the faculty leader in the National War College at the National Defense University.
Peter Hendrick Vrooman is an American diplomat who has served as the United States ambassador to Mozambique since 2022. He previously served as the United States ambassador to Rwanda from 2018 to 2022.
Kent Doyle Logsdon is an American diplomat who has served as the U.S. ambassador to Moldova since February 2022. He previously served as the U.S. chargé d'affaires for Germany.
Adrian Zuckerman is a Romanian-born American lawyer and former diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Romania from 2019 to 2021.
Puneet Talwar is an American diplomat serving as the United States Ambassador to Morocco. He previously served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs from 2014 to November 2015. Talwar served as a top Middle East advisor to Barack Obama and played a central role in the backchannel diplomacy that produced the Iran nuclear deal. Prior to working in the White House, he was a top advisor to then-Senator Joe Biden on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for twelve years.
Dean Richard Thompson is an American diplomat who has served as the United States ambassador to Nepal since October 21, 2022.
Kathleen Ann Kavalec is an American diplomat who has served as the United States ambassador to Romania since February 2023. She is a former nominee to be the United States ambassador to Albania under President Donald Trump.