Press Release - President Biden Announces Key Nominees

WASHINGTON – Today, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate the following leaders to serve as key leaders in his administration:

• Radha Iyengar Plumb, Nominee for Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, U.S. Department of Defense
• Julie D. Fisher, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Cyprus
• Christopher T. Robinson, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Latvia
• Stephanie Sanders Sullivan, Nominee for Representative of the United States of America to the African Union, with the rank and status of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
• L. Felice Gorordo, Nominee for United States Alternate Executive Director of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Radha Iyengar Plumb, Nominee for Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, U.S. Department of Defense

Radha Iyengar Plumb currently serves as the Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of Defense. Prior to her appointment as Chief of Staff, she was the Director of Research and Insights for Trust & Safety at Google, leading their cross functional teams on business analytics, data science, and technical research. She previously served as the Global Head of Policy Analysis at Facebook where she focused on high risk/high harm safety and critical international security issues. Plumb previously was a Senior Economist at the RAND Corporation where she focused on improving measurement and evaluation of readiness and security efforts across the Department of Defense. She also held a number of senior staff positions on national security issues at the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and the White House National Security Council. At the outset of her career, she was an Assistant Professor at the London School of Economics and did her postdoctoral work at Harvard. Plumb received her Ph.D. and M.S. in Economics from Princeton University, and she holds a B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Julie D. Fisher, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Cyprus

Julie D. Fisher, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, currently serves as the U.S. Special Envoy for Belarus based in Vilnius, Lithuania. In 2020 she was confirmed as the first U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Belarus since 2008. Fisher previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Europe and the European Union in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. Before that, she was the Deputy Permanent Representative of the U.S. Mission to NATO. Earlier, she was the Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources. Fisher also served as the Director of the State Department's Operations Center. Other assignments include a detail to NATO's international staff as Deputy Director of the Private Office and assignments at U.S. embassies in Georgia, Ukraine, and Russia, as well as tours at the National Security Council, the Bureaus for European and Eurasian Affairs and Near Eastern Affairs, and the Secretary of State's Executive Secretariat Staff. Fisher earned a Bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master's degree from the School of International and Public Affairs at Princeton University. She speaks Russian and French.

hristopher T. Robinson, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Latvia

Christopher Robinson, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, currently serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. Prior to that, Robinson was Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia. Previously, he served as Deputy Director for Russian Affairs at the State Department, as Political Counselor at the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna, Austria, and as Political Counselor in Managua, Nicaragua. Other assignments include Iraq, Belarus, Canada, Russia, and assignments in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs and the Bureau of European Affairs. Robinson received an M.S. in Strategic Studies from the National War College and a B.A. in International Affairs from the George Washington University. He is the recipient of multiple State Department performance awards, including a Distinguished Honor Award. Robinson speaks Russian and Spanish.

Stephanie Sanders Sullivan, Nominee for Representative of the United States of America to the African Union, with the rank and status of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary

Stephanie Sanders Sullivan, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Career Minister, served as Ambassador to the Republic of Ghana from 2018 – 2022. Previously, she was Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the State Department's Bureau of African Affairs. She served earlier as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Congo, and before that, as Chief of Staff for the Deputy Secretary of State. In earlier assignments, Sullivan was Managing Director of the Office of Management Policy, Rightsizing, and Innovation, and she also provided management support to posts in Africa, the Western Hemisphere, and Europe, as well as international organizations. She served multiple tours in the State Department Operations Center, including as Director, and as Duty Officer at the White House Situation Room. Her first diplomatic assignment was in Cameroon. Sullivan earned a Bachelor's degree at Brown University and a Master's degree at the National Defense University. She was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She speaks French, Lingala, and basic Spanish.

L. Felice Gorordo, Nominee for United States Alternate Executive Director of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Leonardo Felice Gorordo is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and advisor. Currently, Gorordo is CEO of eMerge Americas, a venture-backed platform focused on fostering innovation and entrepreneurship across the Americas and transforming Miami into the tech hub of the Americas. Gorordo is also a venture partner at I Squared Capital's Global Infrastructure Technology Fund. Additionally, Gorordo co-founded and leads Roots of Hope, a non-profit focused on empowering Cuban youth to become the authors of their own futures.

Previously, Gorordo was President & CEO of Clearpath, a venture-backed tech company focused on revolutionizing the immigration filing process. Gorordo also served as advisor to the Biden Cancer Initiative, and Global Director at StartUp Health. Prior to that, Gorordo was appointed by President Obama as one of fifteen White House Fellows and served in the White House Office of Public Engagement & Intergovernmental Affairs. In President George W. Bush's Administration, Gorordo served in various positions at the U.S. Departments of Commerce, State, and Homeland Security. Gorordo is a graduate of Georgetown University and served as a Senior Fellow at the Georgetown Beeck Center for Social Impact & Innovation. Gorordo serves as a Lifetime Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and also serves on the boards of several national and local nonprofits.