THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts)
______________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release August 29, 1997
PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES VICTOR MARRERO AS U.S. REPRESENTATIVE
TO THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES
WITH THE RANK OF AMBASSADOR AT THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE
The President today announced his intent to nominate Victor Marrero to be U.S. Representative to the Organization of American States with the rank of Ambassador at the Department of State.
Ambassador Marrero, of Manhattan, New York, has extensive experience in government service at the local, state and federal levels. He served as New York City's Chairman of the City Planning Commission from 1976 to 1977 and as New York State's Commissioner of the Division of Housing and Community Renewal from 1978 to 1979. In l979, President Carter appointed him Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Following this, he joined the law firm of Tufo & Zuccotti as partner from 1982 to 1985 and then Brown & Wood from 1986 to 1993. In l993, President Clinton appointed him to his current position, as U.S. Representative on the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, with the rank of Ambassador.
Ambassador Marrero has been active in many civic and public organizations, including service as a Trustee of the following organizations: the New York Public Library, the State University of New York, and the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. He also served on the Board of Directors of the New York Telephone Company and the Consolidated Edison Company. He earned a B.A. degree, cum laude, in history at New York University in 1964 and a LL.B from the Yale Law School in 1968 and served as editor of the Yale Law Journal. He also attended the University of Sheffield in England as a Fulbright Scholar in 1967. He has taught as a Visiting Lecturer on the Faculties of the Yale Law and Columbia Law schools. He is fluent in Spanish.
The Organization of American States (OAS) is a regional, intergovernmental organization whose primary purpose is to preserve peace, and security, and to promote, by cooperative action, the integral development of the member states. OAS has six specialized organizations that handle technical matters of common interest of the American States. OAS also holds specialized conferences on specific technical matters.