Douglas Thomas Hickey is an American businessman and diplomat who has served as the

United States ambassador to Finland United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two fi ...

since 2022.

Education

Hickey earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics in 1977 from

Siena College Siena College is an American private Franciscan college in Loudonville, New York. Siena was founded by the Order of Friars Minor in 1937. The college was named after Bernardino of Siena, a 15th-century Italian Franciscan friar and preacher. St ...

Career

From 1989 to 1994, Hickey was the president of

Metropolitan Fiber Systems MFS Communications Company, Inc. (Metropolitan Fiber Systems) was a competitive local exchange carrier that owned and operated local network access facilities installed in and around major U.S. cities and several major European cities. MFS also po ...

. He later joined GlobalCenter, a web hosting service, before it was acquired by

Exodus Communications Exodus Communications, the world's largest web hosting provider at the time, was a data center provider that provided retail and commercial server colocation and was an Internet service provider to dot-com businesses. Exodus went public in 1998 ...

. From 1998 until his resignation in 2001, Hickey was the president and CEO of Critical Path, Inc. From 2000 to 2010, Hickey was a partner at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. He was later the president and CEO of BinWise, Inc., a company that provides software used to track beer, spirits, and wine inventory to businesses in the food and beverage industry. In 2014, Hickey was appointed to serve as the United States Ambassador and commissioner general to Expo Milano by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

Ambassador to Finland

Despite initial reports that President Joe Biden was considering to nominate him as Ambassador to Italy and

San Marino San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...

, he was eventually nominated as Ambassador to Finland on October 8, 2021. Hearings on Hickey's nomination were held before the

Senate Foreign Relations Committee The United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is a standing committee of the U.S. Senate charged with leading foreign-policy legislation and debate in the Senate. It is generally responsible for overseeing and funding foreign aid pro ...

on March 3, 2022. The committee favorably reported his nomination to the Senate floor on March 23, 2022. Hickey was confirmed by the entire Senate via

voice vote In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by responding vo ...

on March 24, 2022. He presented his credentials to President

Sauli Niinistö Sauli Väinämö Niinistö (; born 24 August 1948) is a Finnish politician who has served as president of Finland since March 2012, the 12th person to hold that office. A lawyer by education, Niinistö was Chairman of the National Coalition Part ...

on May 11, 2022.

Awards and recognitions

In 2016, Hickey received an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

degree from Siena College.

Personal life

Hickey and his wife, Dawn Ross, have been prominent financial supporters of Democratic presidential candidates, including

John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

, and Joe Biden.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hickey, Doug Living people Siena College alumni Businesspeople from California California Democrats American venture capitalists Year of birth missing (living people) Ambassadors of the United States to Finland