President Biden Announces Key Nominees

Today, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to serve as key leaders in his Administration:
 

• Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir, Nominee to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Indonesia
• John W. McIntyre, Nominee to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Eswatini

Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Indonesia

Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, and was most recently Executive Secretary of the Department of State. She formerly served as Ambassador to Malaysia. She has served as Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Lakhdhir served as U.S. Consul General in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She has served as Director of the Office of Maritime Southeast Asian Affairs, which includes responsibility for U.S. relations with Indonesia. She also served as a Pearson Fellow in the House International Relations Committee’s Asia and Pacific Subcommittee, and the House Financial Services Committee’s International Monetary Policy and Trade Subcommittee. Early in her career, she was Deputy Coordinator of the Taiwan Coordination Staff in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Other overseas assignments were in China, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia. Lakhdhir earned a B.A. from Harvard College and an M.S. from the National War College. Her languages are Chinese and Bahasa Indonesia.

John W. McIntyre, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Eswatini

John McIntyre, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, currently serves as Minister-Counselor for Management Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia. Previously, McIntyre served as the Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassies in Kingston, Jamaica, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, and Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. McIntyre was also the Staff Director for Resources for the State Department’s Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs and, prior to that, held positions as Management Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and as the Contracts Manager at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. McIntyre’s other postings in the Foreign Service include assignments as Special Assistant to the State Department’s Under Secretary for Management, as a Post Management Officer in the Executive Office of the State Department’s Bureau of European and International Organization Affairs, and as Acting Management Officer/Financial Management Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Pristina, Kosovo. McIntyre earned his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin and his Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Kansas. McIntyre is married to Flora Zylfijaj and they have two children.