Denver LGBTQ activist Scott Miller nominated for Swiss ambassadorship
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Scott Miller, a Denver gay rights activist and wealthy donor to LGBTQ causes, was nominated Friday to be the next ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
His nomination now goes to the U.S. Senate, which must confirm Miller before he can take office in the Swiss capital of Bern. In a statement, Miller said he looks forward to meeting with senators to discuss the two Alpine nations.
“If I’m fortunate enough to be confirmed, I hope to build on the work of my predecessors to strengthen the already solid relationship we have with the Swiss and Liechtensteiners, including our dynamic trade, investment and defense partnerships,” he added.
Miller and his husband, Tim Gill, have donated more than $500 million to LGBTQ causes through the Gill Foundation, which is headquartered in Denver. Miller is a board member and directs the foundation’s national giving strategy.
“Scott Miller’s commitments to equality and opportunity will showcase the best of Colorado and our nation, in Switzerland and on the international stage,” said U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat.
Miller and Gill are also major donors to Democratic candidates, including President Joe Biden. They spent $50,000 trying to draft Biden into the 2016 race (he declined to run) and hosted a fundraiser for Biden in Denver in September 2019. Miller was also a consultant for Biden’s campaign that year.
Miller, 42, was previously a vice president at UBS Wealth Management’s office in Denver. UBS is a Swiss company and one of the largest private banks in the world.
Miller is the second Coloradan to be nominated by Biden for an ambassadorship. Ken Salazar, a former U.S. senator and interior secretary, was nominated to be ambassador to Mexico on June 15. He is awaiting confirmation by the Senate.
Denver-based LGBT rights activist tapped by Biden to serve as ambassador Switzerland
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WILMINGTON, Del.— President Joe Biden is nominating two major Democratic donors, including one from Denver, to serve as ambassadors to Argentina and Switzerland.
The White House announced Friday that Biden has picked LGBT rights activist and philanthropist Scott Miller, who lives in the Mile High City, to serve as his administration’s envoy to Bern and trial lawyer Marc Stanley to serve in Buenos Aires. The U.S. ambassador to Switzerland also serves as the chief envoy to Liechtenstein.
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Miller, a former account vice president at UBS Wealth Management in Denver, and his husband, Tim Gill, are prominent philanthropists and generous backers of Democratic candidates and causes. In 2016, Miller served on the board of the pro-Hillary Clinton group Correct the Record before joining the group Draft Biden.
Gill is the founder and namesake of the Gill foundation, one of the nation’s largest funders of LGBT rights efforts. He was also one of the architects of the Democratic takeover of Colorado politics over the past two decades.
Gill, who made his money in the technology world, has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Colorado political committees. Biden’s presidential campaign received $5,600 from Gill last year, the maximum amount. Miller also donated to the campaign.
Gill also gave $355,00 to the Biden Victory Fund last year, as well as $100,00 to Biden’s former PAC, American Possibilities, in 2017.
In 2016, Gill gave the the Hillary Victory Fund, a PAC fundraising Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee, north of $400,000.
Miller, who received his undergraduate degree from the University of Colorado Boulder, has also donated tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates and causes.
Gill and Miller are close allies of Colorado Gov. Jared Polis.
Stanley, a prominent Dallas attorney, was chairman for the Lawyers for Biden arm of the 2020 campaign, recruiting lawyers across the country to donate legal services to the president’s run for the White House.
Presidents often dispense prime ambassadorships as rewards to political allies and top donors. Those appointments often come with an expectation that the appointees can foot the bill for entertaining on behalf of the United States in pricey, high-profile capitals.
About 44% of Donald Trump’s ambassadorial appointments were political appointees, compared with 31% for Barack Obama and 32% for George W. Bush, according to the American Foreign Service Association. Biden hopes to keep political appointments to about 30% of ambassador picks, according to an administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk about internal discussions.
To be certain, most political appointees from the donor class, a small population that’s made up of predominantly white men, have historically had little impact on foreign policy.
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Other major donors to receive ambassadorial nominations from Biden include Denise Bauer (France and Monaco), David Cohen (Canada) and Cynthia Telles (Costa Rica).
The White House also announced Biden is nominating career senior foreign service officer David Gilmour to serve as ambassador to Equatorial Guinea. Gilmour has held a series of high-ranking State Department positions and is a former ambassador to Togo.
Colorado Sun staff writer Jesse Paul contributed to this report. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Scott Miller, nouvel ambassadeur des Etats-Unis en Suisse et fier militant LGBTQ
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Pendant des semaines, le président Joe Biden a annoncé de nouvelles nominations d’ambassadeurs au compte-goutte et toujours rien pour la Suisse. Le suspense a pris fin vendredi soir. Scott Miller, dont le site Axios avait déjà évoqué le nom en mai, sera bien le nouvel ambassadeur des Etats-Unis en poste à Berne.
Millions de repas distribués
Economiste de 42 ans, Scott Miller a été gérant de fortune chez UBS. Grand donateur de la cause LGBTQ (lesbiennes, gays, bisexuels, transgenres et queers), il copréside le conseil d’administration de la Gill Foundation, du nom de son époux, Tim Gill, de 25 ans son aîné. Le site de la fondation, dont le siège se trouve à Denver (Colorado), stipule qu’il était jusqu’ici responsable des collectes de dons pour faire progresser les droits des LGBTQ. Il a notamment piloté des campagnes pour l’interdiction des thérapies de conversion. Philanthrope, Scott Miller a par ailleurs permis, pendant la pandémie du coronavirus, de distribuer plus de 5,6 millions de repas à des habitants du Colorado dans la précarité.