Last Updated on May 18, 2020, 9:04 AM AST by Anthony Morris
The American President, Donald Trump has announced his intention to nominate entrepreneur and philanthropist William A Douglass as US ambassador to The Bahamas.
Mr Douglass, of Florida, has founded K2 Advisors in 1994 and he had managed it for over more than two decades before he sold it to Franklin Templeton Investments in 2012.
Mr Douglass worked as the managing director of Caspian Securities LLC during his early career. He also worked as a managing director for Tiedemann International Research for whom he managed their office in Tokyo, Japan first, and then he co-managed their United States business based in New York.
Mr Douglass has some close ties to The Bahamas, and he has been visiting Eleuthera ever since 1962. He is the grandson of Juan Trippe who is a Pan Am founder and South Eleuthera resident and died in 1981.
Mr Douglass financed a $200,000 rock climbing facility and a recreational basketball/volleyball court at the Wemyss Bight Primary School a few years ago. After Hurricane Dorian, he appealed for Bahamians to receive US temporary work permits to recover from the effects of the storm.
This is the second choice which President Trump has made for a US ambassador to The Bahamas. He had initially selected Douglas Manchester, who is a real estate developer and billionaire, to acquire the post. However, that selection had some controversy.
In February 2018, Mr Manchester issued an apology after he had been accused of having an unsettling management style that allegedly made some female employees uncomfortable.
The allegations dated back to a time when Mr Manchester owned The San Diego Union-Tribune Television, a now-defunct TV station he launched as the owner of the Union-Tribune newspaper from late 2011 to 2015, according to international news reports.
After being nominated in May 2017, Mr Manchester’s nomination was stalled before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations for some time.
Last year Mr Manchester withdrew his nomination citing threats against his family.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
