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Obama fundraiser Louis Susman nominated for ambassador to Britain

Former investment banker raised money for Chicago cultural institutions

By John McCormick and Mike Dorning | Tribune Reporters

May 28, 2009

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama on Wednesday nominated retired Chicago investment banker Louis Susman to be ambassador to Britain, one of the plum appointments available to the president.

Susman was a top fundraiser for Obama's presidential campaign and served as national finance chairman for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) during his 2004 presidential bid.

While the East Coast and West Coast dominate presidential fundraising, Susman ran his 2004 fundraising operation from the 87th floor of Sears Tower, where he had an office as the vice chairman for Citigroup Global Markets.

He has raised tens of millions of dollars for presidential candidates and Chicago's cultural institutions.

The White House announced Susman's nomination, which had been reported in advance by the British press, on a list of ambassadorial appointments released Wednesday evening.

Former Indiana Democratic Congressman Tim Roemer also was on the list, nominated to serve as ambassador to India. Miguel Diaz, an associate professor of theology at the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn., was picked as ambassador to the Vatican.

The nominations are subject to Senate confirmation.

Susman, 71, was born in St. Louis. The son of an industrial cloth company owner, he grew up in a St. Louis suburb and attended the University of Michigan before returning to St. Louis to go to Washington University School of Law.

Before moving to Chicago in 1989, Susman was a senior partner at a high-powered St. Louis law firm, a director of baseball's St. Louis Cardinals and a Democratic National Committee member from 1972 to 1982.

Susman lives in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood with his wife, Margie, in a home that he purchased in 1989 for $1.5 million. He has two grown children, Sally and William.

Mike Dorning reported from Washington, with John McCormick in Chicago. mccormickj@tribune.com

mdorning@tribune.com