US President Joe Biden (78) has nominated an LGBTQ activist and major donor from the Democrats as the new US ambassador in Bern. 41-year-old business economist Scott Miller is a former management consultant, event planner and UBS asset manager based in Denver, Colorado.
Miller and his spouse, Tim Gill, 67, who is 26 years their senior, are well-known philanthropists. With their foundation and sums of millions, they campaign for the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender people and queer people.
Bernese Mountain Dogs
Together, the former owners of two Bernese Mountain Dogs are, according to their own account, the largest donors in favor of LGBTQ equality in US history. The public shy couple invested several hundred million dollars for it.
Miller’s husband is the founder of the layout software company Quark and, according to Forbes, was one of the 400 richest Americans for a long time. The couple married in 2009 in Boston, Massachusetts, then one of four states that recognized same-sex marriages.
The two men supported the careers or the work of top democratic politicians such as Barack Obama (60), Hillary Clinton (73) and Joe Biden. The Biden government is considered particularly LGBTQ-friendly. Biden appointed a record number of LGBTQ officials to his administration, including Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, 39.
Embassy post in Bern vacant
Miller works as co-president of his husband’s Gill Foundation, founded in 1994. Among other things, he was responsible for awareness-raising campaigns to ban conversion therapies and to end discrimination against queer people.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the foundation also handled the distribution of around 5.6 million meals to tens of thousands of citizens in need in Colorado. It also promoted education in mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology at public schools.
It is not yet known when Miller will take up his post in Bern. First of all, he has to appear before the US Senate for a hearing before he can present his credentials to the Federal Council. The US embassy post for Switzerland and Liechtenstein has been vacant since January.
The last ambassador was Trump confidante
The last US ambassador to Bern, Edward McMullen (57), worked in the Swiss capital for three years. The political advisor and confidante of Donald Trump (75) left Bern at the beginning of the year and returned to South Carolina.
McMullen, who was originally from New York, ran a policy consulting and communications company from South Carolina with branches in several US states. He was rewarded with the post in Bern by then-President Trump in 2017 after leading the Republican’s election campaign in the state of South Carolina and being part of the team preparing for Trump’s inauguration. (SDA)