The Tribune

CALVIN Smyre has been named by United States President Joseph Biden as nominee for ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.

President Biden made the announcement in a press statement on May 13.

According to that release, Mr Smyre has served for 48 years as an elected representative in the Georgia State Assembly, and was chairman of the Democratic Caucus within the Assembly for over a decade.

He continues to serve as Chairman Emeritus of the Caucus.

He is the ‘Dean’ of the Georgia House of Representatives and serves on the Appropriations, Rules, and Higher Education Committees.

Mr Smyre is President Emeritus of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL), and a member of the National Conference of State Legislators. In the private sector, he served for almost four decades as the Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs for Synovus Financial Corporation.

Further, Mr Smyre represented Synovus on the Financial Services Roundtable in Washington, DC, and was the President of the Synovus Foundation.

Mr Smyre served on the Board of Trustees of the Medical College of Georgia Foundation; the Morehouse School of Medicine; the Jack D Hughston Foundation and the Fort Valley State University Foundation as its chair.

He earned his Bachelor of Science from Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, Georgia, and has received over 200 local, state and national honours and awards.

In 1985 and 2005, he was selected by his peers as the National “Legislator of the Year.”

Last month US Senator Christopher Dodd said he was told that officials were making progress to find a new US ambassador to The Bahamas, more than 10 years after the last American ambassador stepped down.

The country has not had an American Ambassador since 2011 when Nicole Avant stepped down from the post. She was appointed to the position in June of 2009 by President Barack Obama.

There were several people nominated for the position over the years.

Among the most recent picks for the position were real estate developer Douglas Manchester and entrepreneur and philanthropist William A Douglass, who were both nominated by US President Donald Trump in 2017 and 2020 respectively.

However, both nominations were withdrawn.