US President Joe Biden has nominated Margaret Cushing Whitman as the new ambassador to Kenya.
If successfully vetted and approved by Congress, she will replace former ambassador Kyle McCarter as the head of the Kenyan consulate.
McCarter resigned in February after Biden's inauguration as US Head of State.
File image of Margaret Cushing Whitman. |Photo| Courtesy|
If approved, Whitman will become the first female US ambassador to Kenya since Prudence Bushnell in the 1990s.
Whitman is a former gubernatorial contestant for the state of California but has since been on the boards of Procter & Gamble and General Motors, and was the national board chair at Teach for America.
President Biden's selection of a business executive deviates from the path taken by his predecessors who majorly appointed career diplomats or strong party loyalists, most of them, male.
Whitman is the former CEO of streaming service provider, Quibi and a former president and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, the Hewlett Packard Company, eBay, and FTD.
"She has held senior leadership positions at Hasbro, StrideRite Corporation and the Walt Disney Corporation, and she is a former partner at Bain and Co," her bio reads.
Whitman holds a BA from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard University.
"Among numerous honours, Meg has been inducted into the Bay Area Business Hall of Fame and the US Business Hall of Fame."
