President Biden Announces Key Nominations

WASHINGTON – Today, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to serve in key roles:

• Christopher R. Hill, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Serbia
• Ravi Chaudhary, Nominee for Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Energy, and the Environment
• Ann Phillips, Nominee for Administrator of the United States Maritime Administration at the Department of Transportation
• Glen S. Fukushima, Nominee for Member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation 
• Enoh T. Ebong, Nominee for Director of the United States Trade and Development Agency

Christopher R. Hill, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Serbia
Christopher R. Hill is a career member of the foreign service. Most recently, he has been the 2021 George Ball Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.  Before retiring from the Foreign Service in 2010, Hill served as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Korea, Poland and Macedonia, as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and as Head of the U.S. delegation to the 6 Party Talks on North Korea.  Earlier in his diplomatic career, he was a member of the negotiating team whose efforts led to the Dayton Peace Agreement, ending the Bosnian war.  For ten years, Hill was Dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, and then Chief Advisor to the Chancellor for Global Engagement and Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy, at the University of Denver.  He earned a B.A. at Bowdoin College and an M.S. at the Naval War College.  The recipient of numerous honors, including the Robert S. Frasure Award for Peace Negotiations and the Secretary of State Distinguished Service Award, Hill speaks Serbian, Polish, Macedonian and French.

Ravi Chaudhary, Nominee for Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Energy, and the Environment
Dr. Chaudhary previously served as a Senior Executive at the U.S. Department of Transportation where he was Director of Advanced Programs and Innovation, Office of Commercial Space, at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In this role, Dr. Chaudhary was responsible for the execution of advanced development and research programs in support of the FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation mission. While at DOT, he also served as the Executive Director, Regions and Center Operations, where he was responsible for integration and support of aviation operations in nine regions located nationwide.

Dr. Chaudhary is a former Air Force officer and pilot, serving on active duty from 1993 to 2015. He has completed a variety of operational, engineering, and senior staff assignments in the Air Force. As a C-17 pilot, he conducted global flight operations, including numerous combat missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as a ground deployment as Director of the Personnel Recovery Center, Multi-National Corps, Iraq. As a flight test engineer, he was responsible for flight certification of military avionics and hardware for Air Force modernization programs supporting flight safety and mishap prevention. Earlier in his career, he supported space launch operations for the Global Positioning System (GPS) and led third stage and flight safety activities to ensure full-operational capability of the first GPS constellation.

As a systems engineer, he supported NASA’s International Space Station protection activities to ensure safety of NASA Astronauts. Dr. Chaudhary also served as a member of the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders during the Obama Administration. In this role, he advised the President on executive branch efforts to improve veterans support for the AAPI community. Dr. Chaudhary holds a Doctorate specializing in Executive Leadership and Innovation from the Georgetown University D.L.S. Program, an M.S. in Industrial Engineering from St. Mary’s University as a NASA graduate fellow, an M.A. in Operational Arts and Military Science from Air University, and a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy. He is a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute, and holds DOD acquisition certifications in program management, test and evaluation, and systems engineering. Dr. Chaudhary hails from Virginia, where he lives with his wife of 25 years, Uma, and their two children.

Ann Phillips, Nominee for Administrator of the United States Maritime Administration at the Department of Transportation
Ann Phillips is a leader in the field of coastal resilience and climate impact on national security at the regional, national and international level. In her current appointment as the first Special Assistant to the Governor of Virginia for Coastal Adaptation and Protection, she is building a collaborative, whole of government and community approach to address the impact of coastal flooding across the Commonwealth, including the development of Virginia’s first Coastal Resilience Master Plan.  In particular, she coordinates across Federal, State, local and other partners to create equitable strategies to address rising waters and climate impact to federal, maritime, and other critical coastal infrastructure assets in Virginia.

Prior to her current appointment, Ann Phillips served nearly 31 years on active duty in the United States Navy, retiring as a Rear Admiral.  Her final Flag command was as Commander, Expeditionary Strike Group TWO, including 14 ships and 10 subordinate commands – all the Amphibious Expeditionary Forces on the East Coast of the United States.  Earlier she served on the Chief of Naval Operations’ Staff as Deputy Director and then Director of Surface Warfare Division, had the honor to commission and command USS MUSTIN (DDG 89), and to command Destroyer Squadron 28. 

Glen S. Fukushima, Nominee for Member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation
Glen S. Fukushima is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP), where his research focuses on U.S. relations with Asia. Before joining CAP in 2012, he was based in Asia for 22 years as a senior executive with one European and four American multinational corporations, including AT&T and NCR, and served on several corporate boards. During this period, he was elected to one term as Vice President and two terms as President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan. Before his business career, he served as a trade negotiator at the Office of the United States Trade Representative as Director for Japanese Affairs and as Deputy Assistant USTR for Japan and China. During the Clinton Administration, he was appointed  as Vice Chair of the Japan-United States Friendship Commission.

A native of California and third-generation American of Japanese ancestry, Fukushima has been active in promoting Asian American advancement in American society, including co-founding CAPA21 (Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans for the 21^st Century). He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Global Council of the Asia Society, President’s Leadership Council of the Asia Foundation, Board of Councilors of the U.S.-Japan Council, and Advisory Committee of Harvard University’s Asia Center. He has taught as a Visiting Professor at Kyoto University and at Waseda University in Japan.  He earned his B.A. at Stanford University, M.A. at Harvard University, and J.D. at the Harvard Law School. He also studied at the Harvard Business School and was a Fulbright Fellow at the Faculty of Law, University of Tokyo.

Enoh T. Ebong, Nominee for Director of the United States Trade and Development Agency
In February 2021, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. appointed Enoh T. Ebong to serve as the Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, an independent federal agency that helps companies create U.S. jobs through the export of U.S. goods and services for priority infrastructure projects in emerging economies. She has been serving as the Acting Director of the agency since then. The appointment meant a return to USTDA where from 2004 to 2019, Ms. Ebong had served in a variety of roles, most recently as the agency’s General Counsel, and Deputy Director. 

Prior to her return to USTDA, Ms. Ebong served as the Head of Strategic Partnerships at the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream, where she drove the development of strategic partnerships to expand access to education, health, financial empowerment, and entrepreneurship. Before joining USTDA in 2004, Ms. Ebong practiced law at the Boston office of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. representing public and private companies in offerings, financing transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance issues.

Ms. Ebong earned her JD from the University of Michigan Law School, a Master of Arts in Communication from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Master of Arts in History, with honors, from The University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She is a member of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Bar. Ms. Ebong was born in Nigeria and spent her formative years there. She resides in Washington, D.C.

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