President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

April 23, 2009 at 04:21 PM EDT · White House Press Office

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 23, 2009

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals for key administration posts: Philip Mudd, Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis, Department of Homeland Security; Kurt Campbell, Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, State Department; Eric P. Schwartz, Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration, State Department; and Edward M. Avalos, Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, United States Department of Agriculture.

President Obama said, “As we work to solve the problems our nation faces, my administration will be strengthened by the addition of these dedicated individuals. I am confident that they will meet the expectations the American people demand and deserve of their public servants.”

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals today:

Philip Mudd, Nominee for Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis, Department of Homeland Security
Mr. Mudd has been the Associate Executive Assistant Director of the FBI's National Security Branch since August 2005. From 2003-2005, he served as Deputy Director of the DCI Counter Terrorism Center (CTC). From 2001-2002, Mudd was the Director for Gulf Affairs Near East and North African Affairs at the National Security Council. In 2003, he returned to become the Deputy Director of the Office of Terrorism Analysis, the analytic arm of the CTC. From 1999-2001, he was Chief of the CIA's analytic group directed against Iraq. From 1998-1999, he was the Executive Assistant to the Associate Deputy Director for Intelligence. From 1992-1995, he worked at the CTC, focusing largely on terrorism in the Middle East in general, with an emphasis on Iranian state-sponsored terrorism. He later joined that National Intelligence Council for a tour as Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Near East and South Asian issues. He joined the CIA in 1985 as a leadership analyst responsible for South Asian issues and continued as a political analyst specializing in South Asia until the early 1990s. His awards include the DCI's Director's Award (2004); the William L. Langer Award (2002); the CIA's Distinguished Intelligence Medal; and the George H. W. Bush Award for Excellence in Counterterrorism. Mr. Mudd earned a Master of Arts in English Literature from the University of Virginia (1984), with a specialty in fiction from the Victorian era, and a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Villanova University (1983). He speaks French and is an avid fisherman.

Kurt Campbell, Nominee for Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, State Department
Dr. Kurt Campbell is the CEO and Co-Founder of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), an organization dedicated to advancing a strong, centrist national security strategy. He concurrently serves as director of the Aspen Strategy Group and as chairman of the Editorial Board of the Washington Quarterly. Prior to that, he served as senior vice president, director of the International Security Program, and Henry A. Kissinger Chair in National Security Policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Campbell is also the founder of StratAsia, a strategic advisory firm focused on Asia. He has been a contributing writer to the New York Times, an on-air commentator for NPR’s All Things Considered, and a consultant to ABC News. Previously, Campbell served in several capacities in government, including as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asia and the Pacific in the Pentagon, a director on the National Security Council Staff, deputy special counselor to the president for NAFTA in the White House, and White House fellow at the Department of the Treasury. For his service, he received the Department of Defense Medals for Distinguished Public Service and for Outstanding Public Service. Campbell is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Wasatch Group, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He was also associate professor of public policy and international relations at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and assistant director of the Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. Campbell also served as the Co-Chairman of the recently completed 9/11 Pentagon Memorial Fund. He served as an officer in the U.S. Navy on the Joint Chiefs of Staff and in the Chief of Naval Operations Special Intelligence Unit.

Eric P. Schwartz, Nominee for Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration, State Department

Eric P. Schwartz is Executive Director of the Connect U.S. Fund, a foundation/NGO initiative focused on foreign and international affairs, and Visiting Lecturer of Public and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. Between 2005 and 2007, he served as UN Deputy Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery, working to promote coordination, accountability to donors and beneficiaries, and best practices in the recovery effort. Prior to that, he served as lead expert on conflict prevention and reconstruction for the Congressionally mandated Task Force on United Nations Reform, and as a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Between 1993 and 2001, Schwartz served at the National Security Council, ultimately as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Multilateral and Humanitarian Affairs. For eight years, he was the NSC official responsible for refugee issues, and managed Administration policy responses on the rescue of Kurdish refugees from Northern Iraq, the resettlement of Vietnamese boat people, and safe haven for Haitian refugees and Kosovars. Prior to that, he served at the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, where he was responsible for most of the Committee's work on Asian refugee issues, including Vietnamese boat people, Laotian refugees and the U.S. immigration issues relating to the transfer of sovereignty in Hong Kong.

Edward M. Avalos, Nominee for Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, United States Department of Agriculture
Edward M. Avalos has 34 years experience in agriculture marketing. His career includes a 5 year tour with the Texas Department of Agriculture and 29 years at the New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA). Having been raised on a family farm in the Mesilla Valley of Southern New Mexico, Mr. Avalos has spent a lifetime in agriculture. Primary crops grown on the farm included specialty crops, such as chile peppers, pecans, onions, and alfalfa as well as commodity crops such as cotton and wheat. While serving in New Mexico, Avalos established the New Mexico Specialty Crops Program, which provides matching funds to companies, individuals, agricultural organizations, commodity groups, and non-profits, which have the commitment of improving the economic viability of rural economies or have marketing/promotional projects of specialty crop and value-added products. In an effort to increase and maintain market share for specialty crops, he has implemented numerous trade missions and promotions including the on-going 12 state green chile pepper promotion which yearly generates over $26 million in retail sales. To create an alternative source of income for farming and ranching operations, agri-tourism was introduced and developed though funding and educational programs. In the international arena, Avalos has worked in Mexico, Japan, China, Canada, and Latin America. In the mid 1980's, a successful and functional livestock trade mechanism was established for sheep, goats, dairy cattle, and beef cattle with Mexico. In the 1990's, pecans were exported to Japan and the Pacific Rim and most recently, the marketing team successfully established a pecan market in China. Avalos is a member of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, New Mexico Wool Growers Association, New Mexico Chile Commission, New Mexico Dry Onion Commission, New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau, and the New Mexico Pecan Growers Association. He brings knowledge and capability in both domestic and international marketing. His experience can be relied upon to address and resolve the many concerns and difficult issues facing the food, agriculture, and livestock sectors in the United States. Avalos received his Bachelors and Masters degrees from New Mexico State University.