Nomination of Vernon Dubois Penner, Jr., To Be United States Ambassador to Cape Verde

The President today announced his intention to nominate Vernon Dubois Penner, Jr., of New York, a career member of the Foreign Service, Class of Counselor, as Ambassador to the Republic of Cape Verde. He succeeds John Melvin Yates.

Mr. Penner entered on duty in the Foreign Service in 1963. Prior to that time he had been an executive trainee at the New York Telephone Co. From 1964 to 1965, he was a junior officer trainee in Frankfurt, Germany, to be followed by consular officer in Zurich, Switzerland, from 1965 to 1966. In 1966 he became administrative officer in Osaka-Kobe, Japan, and returned to Washington in 1968 for language training at the Foreign Service Institute. From 1969 to 1972, he served as consular/political officer at our Embassy in Warsaw, Poland. In 1972 he served as consular officer and special assistant to the Administrator of the Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs until 1975 when he became principal officer in Oporto, Portugal. From there he served in Salzburg, Austria, as principal officer from 1978 to 1979. Mr. Penner took university training at Princeton in 1979-1980. In 1980 he became chief of the consular section in Frankfurt, Germany. In 1983 he returned to Washington as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Overseas Citizens Services, and in 1985 to the present was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Visa Services.

Mr. Penner graduated from Union College (B.A, 1962) and Syracuse University (M.P.A., 1963). His foreign languages are German, Polish, and Portuguese. He is married, has two children, and was born October 20, 1939, in Brooklyn, NY.