U.S. President Joe Biden today proposed investor Bijan Sabet as the new U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic, together with nominations for ambassadorial posts in other foreign countries, the White House has announced in a statement.
The nominations still need to be approved by the U.S. Senate.
Stephen King was the most recent ambassador to Prague. At the end of 2020, he announced that he would give up the post when Biden became the new president. The post has been vacant since then.
King had been the U.S. Ambassador in Prague since December 2017. He replaced lawyer Andrew Schapiro, with whom Czech President Milos Zeman did not have good relations.
The U.S. embassy in Prague said on Twitter that they were pleased to hear about Sabet’s nomination. They wrote that this demonstrated the strong friendship between the United States and the Czech Republic.
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky (Pirates) also issued a press release welcoming the White House’s announcement. Lipavsky said that he had mentioned the filling of the vacant ambassadorial post at his April meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“We have the historically best relations with the USA. During my visit to Washington, I told Blinken that our diplomacy would welcome a rapid filling of the ambassadorial post in Prague,” said Lipavsky. “This is why I welcome the White House announcement that it has proposed Bijan Sabet to the post of the ambassador to the Czech Republic.”
Sabet, 53, is the co-founder and general partner of the Spark Capital company that deals with venture capital. Before that, he was a senior manager in many technology start-ups in Silicon Valley, California, and in Massachusetts. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Boston College, where he completed a Bachelor of Science degree. He was one of the first investors in the USA who focused on social networking websites.
