3 more bundlers get ambassadorships
Posted: Thursday, June 04, 2009 5:47 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
White House, Barack Obama
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Three more Obama bundlers have been given ambassadorships by President Obama.
Video: President Obama names some big campaign donors and fundraisers to serve as U.S. ambassadors in plum posts overseas. NBC’s Lisa Myers reports.
Donald Gips (nominee for Ambassador to South Africa) and
Nicole Avant (Bahamas) both raised more than half a million dollars for candidate Obama, and
David Jacobson (nominated for Ambassador to Canada) bundled between $50,000 and $100,000 for President Obama, according to a bundler list compiled by the
Center for Responsive Politics.
As we reported a week ago, three other ambassador nominees -- to the U.K, France and Japan -- were also bundlers.
As we wrote then for context: Top campaign fundraisers have long gotten these plum posts in past administrations -- Democratic and Republican alike. And then-President-elect Obama, in a Jan. 9 press conference, said, "There probably will be some" ambassadors chosen who were top donors. “It would be disingenuous for me to suggest that there are not going to be some excellent public servants but who haven’t come through the ranks of the civil service,” Obama added.
Bios, per the White House:
Gips: Currently serves in the White House as Assistant to the President and Director for Presidential Personnel, per the White House. "Prior to serving in the White House, Gips helped lead then President-elect Obama’s Presidential Transition Team as a Co-Chair for the Agency Review team," the release says. "From 1998-2008, Gips was Group Vice President of Global Corporate Development for Level 3 Communications, where he led merger and acquisition efforts and was the Chief Strategy Officer. Gips previously served in the White House as Chief Domestic Policy Advisor to Vice President Al Gore. Mr. Gips also was Chief of the International Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission where he was responsible for the WTO negotiations and all spectrum policy, and helped launch the Americorps Program at the Corporation for National Service. Before entering government, he was an Executive Manager at McKinsey & Company. Gips his MBA from the Yale School of Management and received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University."
Jacobson: Currently serving as Special Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel. Prior to serving in the White House, Mr. Jacobson spent 30 years gaining expertise in the areas of complex commercial, class action, securities, insurance and business litigation as a partner at the law firm Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal LLP. While working as a partner at Sonnenschien, Mr. Jacobson also founded AtomWorks, an organization to bring together corporate, civic and academic leaders in order to foster nanotechnology in the Midwest. He also served as a member of CEOs for Cities, a national bipartisan alliance of 75 mayors, corporate executives, university presidents and nonprofit leaders organized to advance the economic competitiveness of cities. Mr. Jacobson received a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and was the Administrative Editor of the Georgetown Law Journal. He received his B.A. from Johns Hopkins University.
Avant: Serves as Vice President of Interior Music and Avant Garde Music Publishing. A business woman, philanthropist and activist, she has been recognized for her tireless efforts to mobilize the younger generation towards greater charitable and political involvement. She has worked as an academic counselor at The Neighborhood Academic Initiative, a USC mentorship program for high school students. Ms. Avant serves as a board member for the Bogart Pediatric Cancer Research Program, the Center for American Progress and Best Buddies, and was named one of the American Cancer Society Next Generation Leaders in 2007.
