U.S. President Joe Biden today appointed Jack Markell "Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Italian Republic and the Republic of San Marino". This is what we read in a statement from the White House. A former governor of the state of Delaware, Markell is currently U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), where he will be replaced by Sean Patrick Maloney.

If Markell is confirmed by the Senate, the diplomatic headquarters in Rome will thus have an ambassador again after more than two years, even if the technical confirmation times to Congress in all probability will 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.

63 years old in November, married with two children, he received a degree in Development Studies and Economics from Brown University and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, Jack Markell began his career at First Chicago Corporation, then became a consultant at McKinsey & Company, then senior vice president of Fleet Call - then Nextel Communications - and finally manager at Comcast. His political career instead 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 resettle 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 a rapid confirmation as ambassador to Rome.

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Jack Markell