Biden appoints Jack Markell as U.S. ambassador to Italy

(ANSA) - NEW YORK, MAY 12 - Joe Biden appoints Jack Markell, former governor of Delaware, ambassador to Italy. This was announced by the White House. Markell is currently the US representative to the OECD.
If Markell is confirmed by the Senate, the diplomatic headquarters of Rome will thus have an ambassador again after more than two years, even if the technical timing of confirmation to Congress will probably not allow him to manage the expected visit of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to the White House. Lewis Eisenberg, appointed by Donald Trump, completed his term on January 17, 2021 and since then the United States has been represented by chargé d'affaires Shawn Crowley.
Married with two children, a master's degree in business administration from the University of Chicago, Markell began his career at First Chicago Corporation, then became a consultant at McKinsey & Company, then senior vice president of FleetCall - then Nextel Communications - and finally manager at Comcast.
His political career began as treasurer of Delaware (from 1999 to 2009), of which he then became governor for two terms (2009 to 2017), the first Jew to lead that state.
In August 2021, during the evacuation of Afghan civilians after the U.S. withdrawal from the country, he was appointed White House coordinator of "Operation Allies Refuge," a program to help refugees settle in the United States. Two months earlier, Biden had already appointed him US ambassador to the OECD and the Senate had easily approved the choice: a precedent that should pave the way for his rapid confirmation as ambassador in Rome. (ANSA).