Press Release - President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Nominate and Appoint Personnel to Key Administration Posts

President Donald J. Trump today announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key positions in his Administration:

Bimal Patel of Georgia, to be an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Institutions.

Mr. Patel currently serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for the Financial Stability Oversight Council. Prior to joining the United States Department of the Treasury, Mr. Patel was a partner and head of the Financial Advisory and Regulation practice in the Washington, D.C., office of O'Melveny & Myers LLP. Mr. Patel previously served as senior advisor to Director Jeremiah O. Norton on the Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Additionally, Mr. Patel has served as an adjunct associate professor at Stanford University, teaching an undergraduate course on banking regulation. Mr. Patel earned his B.A. from Stanford University, M.P.P. from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Sarah-Ann Lynch of Maryland, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Co-operative Republic of Guyana.

Sarah-Ann Lynch, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), class of Minister-Counselor, has served as an American diplomat since 1993. Since 2015, she has been senior deputy assistant administrator and acting assistant administrator of USAID's Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Previously, Ms. Lynch was the USAID Mission Director in Iraq from 2013 to 2014, the director of USAID's Office of Iraq and Arabian Peninsula Affairs from 2011 to 2013, and director of the Office of Program and Project Development for USAID Afghanistan from 2008 to 2009. In addition to serving as director in USAID/LAC's Office of Strategy and Program Planning and the Office of South American Affairs, she also served overseas in Peru and Bangladesh. Ms. Lynch earned a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College, an M.A.L.D. degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and an M.S. from the National War College. She speaks Arabic, French, and Spanish.

Susan N. Stevenson of Washington, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Equatorial Guinea.

Ms. Stevenson, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, has served as an American diplomat since 1992. She is currently Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the State Department's Bureau of Public Affairs, a position she has held since 2016. She served as the Bureau's Acting Assistant Secretary from January 2017 to February 2018. Previously, Ms. Stevenson served the State Department in senior leadership and policy positions for the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy from 2014 to 2016, in the Bureaus of East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2012 to 2014 and Public Affairs in 2012, and as the United States Consul General in Chiang Mai, Thailand, from 2010 to 2012. Her overseas tours also included Beijing, Hong Kong, Mexico City and Bangkok. Ms. Stevenson earned both a B.S. and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. She speaks Mandarin Chinese, French, Spanish, and Thai.

Pamela Bates of Virginia, to be the Representative of United States of America to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development with the rank of ambassador.

Ms. Bates served for 24 years as a career member of the United States Foreign Service before assuming her current role as a partner at Securitas Global Risk Solutions in Wayne, Pennsylvania, in 2017. While with the State Department, Ms. Bates' assignments included service as deputy director of the Economic and Commercial Studies Division for the National Foreign Affairs Training Institute in Arlington, Virginia, and as the senior energy advisor at the United States Mission to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, France. She also served in the State Department's Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. Ms. Bates earned her A.B. degree from Bowdoin College, her M.A. from John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and her M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She speaks French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German.

Mina Chang of Texas, to be an Assistant Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development for the Bureau for Asia.

Ms. Chang serves as Chief Executive Officer of Linking the World, an international non-governmental organization utilizing innovative research tools to bridge the gap between practitioners and policymakers and curate broad public conversation about national security. Ms. Chang has extensive on the ground experience in proactive development and disaster relief in areas of conflict and instability, including: Afghanistan, the Philippines, Burma, Somalia, and Iraq, experiencing firsthand the toll conflict and instability take on vulnerable communities. Ms. Chang is an alumna of the Harvard Business School, a graduate of the United States Army War College National Security Seminar, a Harvard John F. Kennedy Senior Executive in National and International Security, and a former International Security Fellow at New America. Ms. Chang is published in Fortune, Foreign Policy Journal, Forbes, and The Hill. She has addressed assemblies at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, the United Nations, the United States Department of Defense, and the United States Military Academy at West Point.

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President Donald J. Trump today announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to be Representatives of the United States of America to the Seventy-third Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, with the personal Rank of Ambassador while performing the duties as the Representative of the United States of America to the Seventy-third Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

• Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin
• Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon
• Margarita Palau-Hernandez of California
• Elizabeth Erin Walsh of Washington, D.C.

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President Donald J. Trump today announced his intent to appoint the following individual to a key position in his Administration:

Scott Buschman of Virginia, to be the Director of the Joint Task Force East, Department of Homeland Security for a term of two years.

Vice Admiral Buschman most recently served as the Commander of the Seventh United States Coast Guard District in Miami, Florida, where he was responsible for all United States Coast Guard operations in the Southeast United States and the Caribbean Basin. Vice Admiral Buschman holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the United States Coast Guard Academy, a M.P.A. from The George Washington University, and an M.B.A. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as part of the Sloan Fellows Program. He is originally from Peterborough, New Hampshire, and received his commission in 1984 after graduating from the United States Coast Guard Academy. Vice Admiral Buschman takes over for the previous Joint Task Force-East Director, now United States Coast Guard Commandant, Admiral Karl Schultz.