Appointments

By The Hill Staff - 11/03/11 07:56 PM ET

• President Obama has nominated Ajit Varadaraj Pai to be a commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission. Pai works for Jenner & Block’s Litigation Department as a partner. Before that, he worked in the FCC’s Office of the General Counsel as deputy general counsel, associate general counsel and special adviser to the general counsel. He has also worked for the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights as chief counsel.

• The president has nominated Rebecca Blank to be deputy secretary for the Commerce Department. Blank currently serves as the acting deputy secretary of Commerce. She has also served as the undersecretary of Commerce for economic affairs and as the acting secretary of Commerce. Before that, she worked for the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy dean and as co-director of the National Poverty Center.

• President Obama has nominated Michael Sheehan to be assistant secretary of Defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict within the Defense Department. Sheehan works for the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point as a fellow and recently worked for NBC News as a terrorism analyst. His prior experience includes working as the deputy commissioner for counterterrorism in the New York City Police Department, serving as assistant secretary-general of mission support in the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations and working as the State Department’s coordinator for counterterrorism.

• The president has nominated Larry Leon Palmer to be the ambassador to Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Palmer, a Foreign Service career member, worked for the Inter-American Foundation from 2005 to 2010 as president and chief executive officer. Before that, he served as Ambassador to the Republic of Honduras and worked in Quito, Ecuador, as charge d’affaires. He has also served in five other overseas assignment locations.