GMF Welcomes Three New Members to its Board of Trustees: Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Admiral (Ret.) John Kirby, and Former Obama White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler
The Board of Trustees of the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) has elected three new Members, each bringing valuable perspectives and deep experience to the organization. “This distinguished group will provide invaluable guidance to GMF and we look forward to working with them,” said Robin West, the chairman of the Board.
Mitch Landrieu joined the Board in February after serving as the 61st Mayor of New Orleans from 2010-2018, leading the city’s continued recovery from Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He also served as the President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Prior to his election as mayor, Landrieu also served as lieutenant governor of Louisiana from 2004 to 2010. In 2017, Landrieu gained national prominence for his powerful decision to take down four Confederate monuments, which earned him the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. In his New York Times best-selling book, In the Shadow of Statues, Landrieu recounts his personal journey confronting racism and tackles the broader history of slavery, race relations, and institutional inequalities that still plague America. Mr. Landrieu recently launched the E Pluribus Unum Fund, a social transformation initiative in the south created to fulfill America's promise of justice and opportunity for all by breaking down the barriers that divide us by race and class.
Rear Admiral (Ret.) John Kirby began his term as a Trustee in May. Kirby brings to GMF a wealth of experience drawn from a 29-year career with the United States Navy, including tours as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Media Operations, U.S. Navy Chief of Information, and Pentagon Press Secretary--the first uniformed officer to hold the position of chief spokesperson for the Department of Defense. Following his military career, Admiral Kirby returned to government where he most recently served as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. He is currently a military and diplomatic analyst with CNN.
Kathryn Ruemmler also joined the GMF Board in May. She is the Global Co-Chair of the White Collar Defense & Investigations Practice and a partner in the Litigation & Trial Department at Latham & Watkins. Ms. Ruemmler rejoined Latham in 2014 after a distinguished career in government, having served as White House Counsel to President Obama and, prior to that, as Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General in the Department of Justice. She worked for six years as a federal prosecutor, first as an Assistant United States Attorney in Washington, D.C. and later as the Deputy Director of the Enron Task Force. Earlier in her career, Ms. Ruemmler served as Associate Counsel to President Bill Clinton.
GMF is delighted to have these new Trustees help the organization fulfill its mission of strengthening transatlantic cooperation in the spirit of the Marshall Plan.