MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Businessman, next US ambassador to Brazil

Ambassador Clifford M. Sobel will serve as the next Ambassador of the United States to Brazil starting in July 2006. Mr. Sobel's previous posting was as Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, 2001/05.

Until becoming Ambassador to the Netherlands, Clifford Sobel was Chairman of Net2Phone, Inc., a public company listed on the NASDAQ and the largest provider of Internet telephone service, marketing a broad range of enhanced Internet communication applications. Recently, Net2Phone formed a joint venture with Cisco, specializing in Network Management Software.

Ambassador Sobel was also Chairman and President of SJJ Investment Corporation and CMS Realty Company, where he was responsible for investment decisions in a wide variety of areas. From 1985-1991, he was founder and board member of Norcrown Bank of Roseland, New Jersey. During the 1970s and 80s, he founded and later became Chairman of several companies that designed, manufactured and imported fixtures in retail environments.

By Presidential appointment Ambassador Sobel served on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council in Washington, D.C., between 1994 through 1998. He was on the board of the Lexington Institute, a wide-ranging public policy think tank based in Arlington. Virginia, whose primary focuses are education reform, national security, deregulation, corporate governance and tax rate reduction. Prior to his service at The Lexington Institute, he served as Chairman of the Board Overseer of The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, also a public policy think tank.

From 1987-1989, he was appointed to the U.S. Government Industry Sector International Trade Board. Ambassador Sobel was on the advisory boards of Empower America and the Republican Leadership Council, and served on the board and as a member of the policy committee of Business Executives for National Security (BENS). In 1995, he was asked to testify before Congress on fast-track international trade treaties. He was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1996, and in 2000, and served on the Platform Committee and the Sub-Committee on Foreign Policy in 2000. He served as the New Jersey financial chairman of the primary and presidential campaigns for then-Governor George W. Bush.

Ambassador Sobel attended the University of Vermont and graduated with honors from New York University's School of Commerce with the Bachelor of Science degree in management. In 1999, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws degree from Kean University, New Jersey, in recognition of his public service contribution Former Ambassador to Brazil John J. Danilovich is currently Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation in Washington.