Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Blue Energy Ambassadors Held Powwow in Paris

Lots of get-togethers going on these days. Yes, you probably do this in spring/fall overseas because summer is the traditional transfer and R&R seasons. Or maybe not.  Over in Europe, I understand that there was a big do organized by the US Ambassador to Paris, Charles Rivkin. 

US Ambassador to Finland, Bruce Oreck blogged about the event:

"[A]n unprecedented gathering hosted by the U.S. Ambassador to France, my friend Charles Rifkin, to accelerate the implementation of  energy efficiency technology and sustainability practices in U.S. Embassies."

"This two day event brought together business leaders, representatives from Washington D.C., senior management from over 20 U.S. Embassies and 9 U.S. Ambassadors.  There were some serious power lunches there to help lay out a series of next steps – implementations with real metrics."

He also writes that "I hope soon to announce a major undertaking at our Embassy that could be a pilot for similar projects around Europe and beyond."



(L to R) United States Ambassadors Speckhard (Greece),
Solomont (Spain and Andorra), King (USUN),
Rifkin (France), Oreck (Finland), Stroum (Luxembourg),
Beyer (Switzerland), Eacho (Austria) and Barzun (Sweden)
Photo from Ambassador Oreck's blog


There are some 40 ambassadors in the EUR bureau. Although apparently participated by senior management from 20 embassies, only nine ambassadors were in attendance at this event. What is most striking to us is -- only one of the nine ambassadors in attendance is also career diplomat.  That's Ambassador Speckhard who is posted in Greece (and previously a DCM at US Embassy Baghdad).  What's up with that? Did somebody mess up the invite list?





1 comment:

Jesmoi said...

EUR bureau = political appointee$