As President Obama attended the 70th anniversary D-Day events in France on Friday, the White House announced he plans to nominate Jane Hartley as the U.S. top envoy in Paris.
The Hartley pick has been rumored for a while. She is a top Democratic fundraiser, raising at least $500,000 for Obama in 2012. She’s the chief executive of the Observatory Group, an economic and political advisory firm in Manhattan. Hartley and her husband Ralph Schlosstein, an investment banker, are a power couple in the finance world, who have held top dollar fundraisers for the president.
The France post has been vacant since Charles Rivkin left in November 2013. He is now serving in the Obama administration as assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs.
The pick comes on the heels of the (shocking?) news that Obama did not pick a big donor for the same job in Ireland, which is somewhat rare for a coveted Western Europe spot.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/in-the-loop/wp/2014/06/06/obama-to-send-bundler-jane-hartley-to-paris/
