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On August 6, President Obama announced his intent to nominate Alan D. Solomont to be Ambassador to Spain and Andorra. Official bio released by the WH below:
"Alan Solomont is Chairman of the bipartisan Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service. He was appointed by President Clinton in 2000, re-appointed by President Bush in 2007 and elected chairman in 2009. Solomont has spent his professional career in the health and elder care arenas. He is Chairman of Solomont Bailis Ventures, which invests in early stage health care companies. He was the Co-Founder of HouseWorks, a home care company that helps seniors remain independent and supports families caring for aging relatives. He is also Founder and Managing Director of Angel Healthcare Investors.
As a Senior Fellow and Visiting Instructor at Tufts University, Mr. Solomont has taught an undergraduate political science course on the American Presidency. He has served on several nonprofit and for profit boards, including the Boston Medical Center, Boston Private Bank & Trust Company, Angel Healthcare Investors, The New Israel Fund, Israel Policy Forum, the University of Lowell and the University of Massachusetts, Tufts University, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Foundation, and the WGBH Educational Foundation. He has chaired the Board of Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston and Hebrew Senior life, a large nonprofit elder care provider in Boston.
Mr. Solomont holds a B.A. in Political Science and Urban Studies from Tufts University and a B.S. in Nursing from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell."
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OpenSecrets.org has listed Alan Solomont as one of Obama’s bundlers, raising a minimum of $500K for the election (Bundlers are people with friends in high places who, after bumping against personal contribution limits, turn to those friends, associates, and, well, anyone who's willing to give, and deliver the checks to the candidate in one big "bundle."). Harper’s called him a nursing home magnate with broad interests in the heath care sector. Boston Globe called him a $4 Million Man. He was Obama’s fund-raising chief in the Northeast.
If confirmed, Mr. Solomont would succeed replace, Eduardo Aguirre, also of Texas, who was appointed US Ambassador to Spain during President G.W. Bush’s second term (2005-2009). There is a long list of non-career appointees who made it to Madrid; in fact, the last six ambassadors there were all political appointees. We have to go all the way back to 1986 to find a career diplomat who was appointed chief of mission to Spain (that was Reginald Bartholomew, 1986-1989).
Related Item: President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts, 8-6-09
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