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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release April 7, 1993

              PRESIDENT NAMES AMBASSADOR TO NAMIBIA 
                  AND URUGUAY ROUND COORDINATOR

(Washington, DC) The President announced today his nomination of Marshall McCallie to be Ambassador to Namibia, and his intention to nominate John Schmidt to the rank of Ambassador during his tenure of service as the Uruguay Round Coordinator. In that position, Schmidt will be the chief U.S. negotiator for the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

"These are two key appointments," said the President. "The Uruguay Round of the GATT talks is vital to our hopes for freer and fairer trade in the world. Likewise, our relationship with Namibia is key as seek to promote democracy in southern Africa. I am very happy with the choices of John Schmidt and Marshall McCallie to fill those roles."

Also today, the President announced his approval of the appointments by Commerce Secretary Ron Brown of Kent Hughes to be Associate Deputy Secretary and Wilbur Hawkins to be Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Development.

Biographical sketches of the nominees are attached.

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                   BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF NOMINEES
                             April 7, 1993

John Schmidt is a nationally recognized attorney who has been active in legal and judicial reform efforts as well as a variety of public service activities. A senior partner in the Chicago office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, he was one of the founding members of the Chicago Council of Lawyers, a reform bar association. In 1978, he founded the Chicago Lawyer, an investigative and reformoriented legal publication. Schmidt also serves as Chairman of the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority, a joint city-state authority. He served as Transition Co-Chair for Mayor Richard Daley, and was Daley's unpaid Chief of Staff for the first two months of his administration. He has also served on a variety of state and city boards, and has been active in Democratic politics at all levels. Schmidt holds his B.A. and J.D. degrees from Harvard University.

Marshall McCallie, a career Foreign Service officer, has been the Deputy Chief of Mission in South Africa since 1990. Prior to that, he served for two years as Deputy Chief of Mission in Lusaka. He has also served at the State Department as Director of the Junior Officer Division in the Office of Personnel, and as Nigeria Desk Officer in the Bureau of African Affairs. In addition, McCallie has held posts at the US Embassies in Monvovia, Abu Dhabi and Kinshasa. An Air Force veteran and former member of the Peace Corps staff, McCallie holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and a M.A. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Kent Hughes, a longtime Congressional staff economist, is President of the Council on Competitiveness, an organization comprised of chief executives from the business, labor, and academic communities. He was previously Chief Economist of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, Staff Director of the Senate Subcommittee on International Economic Policy and Trade, and Legislative Director for Senator Gary Hart prior to Hart's first Presidential campaign. From 1977-82, he was Senior Economist for the Congressional Joint Economic Committee. He has also worked for the Congressional Research Service, the Office of Senator Vance Hartke, the Urban Law Institute, and the International Legal Center. Hughes holds a B.A. from Yale University, Ll.B. from Harvard Law School, and Ph.D. in Economics from Washington University.

Wilbur Hawkins is Regional Manager for Community Diversity Development for the Tennessee Valley Authority in Memphis. He was previously President of the Lower Mississippi Delta Development Center and Executive Director of the Lower Mississippi Delta Development Commission, which he was appointed to by then Chairman Bill Clinton. Hawkins was previously with the TVA in both Tennessee and Kentucky from 1978-89, and served in the Shelby County, Tennessee government. He is a graduate of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

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