M. Obama nomme son émissaire auprès de l'UE[en] 

William E. Kennard will replace Kirsten Silverberg as US Ambassador to the EU. Like Kennard, Silverberg was a political appointee to the position. A Texas native, Silverberg was nominated for the position by President George W. Bush in 2008, after serving as a senior advisor to Ambassador L. Paul Bremer in Iraq. 

The US Ambassador to the EU is America’s advocate to the EU institutions on a variety of issues, most notably trade, competition, and financial regulation. The nomination is subject to Senate confirmation. 

Kennard, who is currently managing-director at the Carlyle Group, a large private equity firm, was a surrogate speaker for the Obama campaign and a major fundraiser, bundling at least $500,000 in donations. Kennard himself reportedly gave thousands of dollars to Obama’s successful campaigns. 

He initially came to prominence as chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) during the Clinton administration, an appointment, which, according to the New York Times, he was not expected to get, with that paper describing him as a “compromise appointee who has little influence in the White House”. 

However, Kennard’s leadership of the FCC coincided with one of the most tumultuous times in the communications sector’s history. His appointment to the position in 1997 came at a time when the fast-moving communications sector was marked by unbounded confidence and numerous takeover and merger deals, in an era that led to the dot-com bubble. 

In early 2001, just before his resignation from the post of FCC chair, Kennard gave his conditional approval for the then largest communications merger in US history, between AOL and Time Warner. 

During his three-year tenure as chair of the FCC, Kennard was particularly focused on promoting competition and consumer choice; encouraging broadband rollout and the uptake of digital technologies; expanding access to technology, according to FCC. He was also a vocal proponent of minority rights, championing affirmative action programmes within the regulatory body. 

However, he was not without faults. Some felt he had a tendency to announce initiatives without consulting others, reported the New York Times in 1999, and a ranking Democrat on the House Commerce Committee called Kennard “ignorant” and “inept” at an oversight hearing. 

The role of regulator is bound to attract the ire of interested parties, and while he was berated by some, he was labeled a “Consumer Champion for a Digital Age” by others, due to his efforts to ensure that ordinary Americans reaped the benefits of new technologies. The FCC statement announcing his resignation underlined that Kennard had “aggressively promoted the benefits of competition and deregulation” for the consumer’s benefit. 

Before becoming FCC Chair, Kennard served as the FCC’s General Counsel and as a partner and member of the board of directors of the law firm Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand (now DLA Piper). 

The Obama nominee is currently on the board of the New York Times Company, which he has served on since 2001. 

Kennard’s nomination is one of many new politically appointed ambassadors that have been chosen by the Obama administration to represent US interests abroad. The White House also tapped former fundraiser Alan Solomont to become ambassador to Spain and Andorra. 

In a statement announcing Kennard’s nomination, Obama said that he is “grateful that such distinguished and capable individuals have chosen to serve in my administration at this crucial moment in our nation’s history”.