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Obama appoints an Ethiopian to key administration post

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key administration posts:

* Daniel W. Yohannes, Chief Executive Officer, Millennium Challenge Corporation
* Arun Majumdar, Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy, Department of Energy
* Gustavo Aranavat, United States Executive Director to the Inter-American Development Bank

President Obama said, “These individuals have proven that they will bring skill, dedication and expertise in these important areas to my administration, and I look forward to working with them in the coming months and years.”

Daniel W. Yohannes, Nominee for Chief Executive Officer, Millennium Challenge Corporation

daniel-yohannesDaniel W. Yohannes is President and CEO of M&R Investments, LLC, a privately-held investment firm specializing in real estate, financial institutions and the green energy sector. Previously, he served as Vice Chairman of U.S. Bank for the Commercial Banking Group, Consumer Banking Group and as Head of Integration for Community and Public Affairs. In this role, his responsibilities included leading the integration of U.S. Bank and Firstar, which resulted in the 6th largest bank in the country. From 1992 to 1999, Yohannes was President and CEO of U.S. Bank (formerly Colorado National Bank), where he grew the Colorado franchise from $2 billion to $9 billion in assets. From 1977 to 1992, he worked at Security Pacific Bank (now Bank of America), where he held a number of leadership roles. Yohannes is on the Board of the National Jewish Hospital and Research Center, the Denver Art Museum, the University of Colorado Medical School and Project C.U.R.E., which provides medical supplies to 110 countries. Yohannes holds a B.S. in Economics from Claremont McKenna College and a M.B.A. from Pepperdine University.

Arun Majumdar, Nominee for Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy, Department of Energy

Arun Majumdar is currently the Associate Laboratory Director for Energy and Environment at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He has had a highly distinguished research career in the science and engineering of energy conversion, transport, and storage ranging from molecular and nanoscale level to large energy systems. For his pioneering work, he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2005. At Berkeley Labs and UC Berkeley, he helped shape several strategic initiatives in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy as well as energy storage, and testified before Congress on how to reduce energy consumption in buildings. He has served on the advisory committee of the National Science Foundation’s engineering directorate, was a member of the advisory council to the materials sciences and engineering division of DOE’s Basic Energy Sciences, and was an advisor on nanotechnology to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Dr. Majumdar has also been an entrepreneur, and has served as an advisor to startup companies and venture capital firms in the silicon valley. He received his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in 1985 and his PhD in 1989 from the University of California, Berkeley.

Gustavo Aranavat, Nominee for United States Executive Director to the Inter-American Development Bank

Gustavo Arnavat most recently served as Director and Senior Legal Counsel of the Citi Private Bank in New York, where he was Legal Co-Head of the Latin America market region. At Citi, he managed a wide range of legal, regulatory and policy issues in connection with banking, investment management and brokerage services. Arnavat also spent several years as an investment banker, focusing on the origination and execution of public offerings and private placements by Latin American issuers, and provided strategic advice relating to M&A transactions and joint ventures. Prior to attending law school, Arnavat served as a Presidential Management Fellow, working at the National Security Council as the Latin America regional analyst, the State Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration, where he worked on domestic and international law enforcement and anti-money laundering initiatives. He serves on the Boards of the DEA Museum Foundation, the Westchester Community Foundation, and TeatroStageFest. Arnavat received a B.A., cum laude, from Cornell University, an M.P.P. degree from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow, and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, where he was an editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.

6 thoughts on “Obama appoints an Ethiopian to key administration post

  1. Daniel Yohannes a well known Woyane supporter, a cousin of Seye Abraha. He has a long history of supporting TPLF up until recently when the split occurred within the tribal gangs. Long suspected as chief portfolio manager of Woyane properties enough to give him credibility to ascend to high level management within the bank.

    He used his position to provide countless unsecured loans to Tigrean Liquor store owners and other business in the Denver area. He is the chief architect to have Denver to be named sister city of Axum, in part by campaign contribution for the ex mayor Wellington Webb. Behind the scene a divisive figure: underwriting financial empowerment for the Tigrean community in North America.

    As for his political ambition, he used his banking prowess at his disposal which ultimately became his own demise. In 2002 he was pushed out from his position when it was revealed that he allowed US bank funds to be used for unsuccessful campaign for Democratic Senate hopeful Strikland.

    This appointment has nothing to do with Ethiopia, as the man himself never claimed to be one.

    God Save Ethiopia from the TPLF invaders! Amen

  2. The Economist

    THIS year’s drought is the worst in east Africa since 2000, and possibly since 1991. Famine stalks the land. The failure of rains in parts of Ethiopia may increase the number needing food handouts by 5m, in addition to the 8m already getting them, in a population of 80m. The production of Kenyan maize, the country’s staple, is likely to drop by one-third, hitting poor farmers’ families hardest. The International Committee of the Red Cross says famine in Somalia is going to be worse than ever. Handouts are urgently needed by roughly 3.6m Somalis, nearly half the resident population (several million having already emigrated during years of strife). In fractious northern Uganda cereal output is likely to fall by half. Parts of South Sudan, Eritrea, the Central African Republic and Tanzania are suffering too. Rich countries are being less generous than usual. The UN’s World Food Programme says it has only $24m of the $300m it needs just to feed hungry Kenyans for the next six months.

    In Mwingi district, in Kenya’s Kamba region, the crops have totally failed. Villagers are surviving on monthly government handouts of maize-meal, rice and a little cooking oil. Worse than the hunger, say local leaders, is the thirst. People are digging wells by hand, but they hit rock. They plead for the means to go deeper but they cannot afford the dynamite or machinery.

    In the pastoral areas of northern Kenya, southern Ethiopia and south Somalia the death of livestock on a massive scale has sharpened conflict. Oromo rebels in south and east Ethiopia and Somali secessionists in the east of the country are likely to fight more fiercely. The drought may strengthen the hand of the Islamist Shabab movement, linked to al-Qaeda, in south Somalia; it uses food aid to control the people. Recent cattle raids in northern Kenya have left scores dead, with unprecedented numbers of women and children among the victims. Fighting may intensify until the land becomes greener again.

    When will that be? Meteorologists reckon the rains due in October and November will be heavier than usual. That would be good, if the east African authorities were prepared. But they are not. Mud slides and floods are likely, with streams and rivers carrying off the topsoil. Malaria and cholera may increase. Surviving cattle, weakened by drought, will drown or die of cold.

    Even the cities—and their economies—will be sorely afflicted, since 95% of Ethiopia’s power and 70% of Kenya’s is hydroelectric. With rivers down to a trickle or drying up completely, dams are running out of water; some are empty. Turbines have shut down. Electricity throughout east Africa is patchier than usual, just when governments are trying to pep their economies up.

    The delayed opening of a big Ethiopian dam capable of producing 300MW has resulted in daily blackouts in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. That, says the government, has reduced economic growth by two percentage points to 7%; others guess that growth has fallen to less than 5%. A British firm, Aggreko, has won a contract to set up electrical generators to supply 30MW to Ethiopia’s grid.

    The same firm has also signed a deal with Kenya to double the power it temporarily supplies the country, to 290MW. Kenya has been rationing electricity. Most of its townspeople are without power for three days a week. Aggreko will keep more lights on but far more expensively. Small firms and poorer customers may be pushed into the dark.

    The high price of food and water is making governments more disliked. The price of maize-meal has more than doubled since 2007. Jerry cans of water, which is often filthy, cost four times more than a year ago. With luck, governments may be forced to improve their management of water. Villagers may be persuaded to build terraces to stop topsoil running off. Dams need better maintenance and desilting. Officials should be shamed into stopping their friends from stealing or wasting water. As the cost of diesel power soars, schemes for renewable power and plans to link the region’s power grids may be speeded up. High prices have encouraged some industries to find their own solutions. An Indian cement firm, Sanghi, says it plans to run a new Kenyan cement factory on its own hydroelectric power.

    Amid the gloom, a few companies and countries have benefited. Shares in the Kenya Power and Lighting Company have risen this year in expectation of more demand. The main Kenyan power supplier, KenGen, has sold bonds to finance a scheme to expand its output by 500MW. Malawi, which periodically suffered famine until a recent fertiliser-subsidy scheme came good, is to export maize to Kenya.

    The drought cycle in east Africa has been contracting sharply. Rains used to fail every nine or ten years. Then the cycle seemed to go down to five years. Now, it seems, the region faces drought every two or three years. The time for recovery—for rebuilding stocks of food and cattle—is ever shorter. And if the rains fail before the end of this year, an unimaginably dreadful catastrophe could ensue.

  3. I hope he is not a supporter of Dictator Meles. I won’t say congratulations unless I know for sure that this man is not a Woyane; Woyanes will do anything to be close to the Obama administration.

  4. Let we accept the appointment and see the achivement from his personal carrier point of view.Mr. Daniel, whether he is woyane or anti-woyane, what he has accomplished upto now will make him to be acknowledge.

  5. Tariku,
    Thanks for the info. The Obama administration need to be aware of the information you are telling us that this man is close to the Ethiopian Dictator Meles==the one who is responsible for so many human rights violations. I knew it all along that these woyanes will do anything to be close to the Obama administration. It is sad and disappointing that as many as well educated Ethiopians out there, Woyanes have to be the ones in Obama’s administration. This is all Woyanes determination to stay in higher places by all means of necessary. Where are our elite Ethiopians?

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