Ronald P. Spogli (born 1948) is an American venture capitalist and politician. He is the former
United States Ambassador to Italy
Since 1840, the United States has had diplomacy, diplomatic representation in the Italian Republic and its predecessor nation, the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946), Kingdom of Italy, with a break in relations from 1941 to 1944 while Italy and the U ...
and
to San Marino. He was confirmed by the
U.S. Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and powe ...
on June 30, 2005, after being nominated by
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
on June 9. He was preceded by
Mel Sembler
Melvin Floyd Sembler (born May 10, 1930) is an American former diplomat who was the United States Ambassador to Italy (2001–2005), and Ambassador to Australia and Nauru (1989–1993). He has also served as chairman of the board of the Sembler ...
as ambassador to Italy and is the first American ambassador to
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 ...
from the United States. This new position was created as a result of the
excellent relations between the two countries.
Early life
In 1948, Spogli was born in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
.
Education
Spogli received an A.B. in history from
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
in 1970, and was elected to
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...
in his junior year. He earned an
M.B.A.
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as account ...
in 1975 from
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...
, where he was future president George W. Bush's roommate.
He lived abroad in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
and
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
for two years during his time at Stanford, and became fluent in the
Italian language
Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about 85 m ...
.
Career
Spogli is a co-founder of
Freeman Spogli & Co., a
private equity
In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a ty ...
investment firm. Before that he was a managing director in the Investment Banking Division of
Dean Witter Reynolds
Dean Witter Reynolds was an American Brokerage firm, stock brokerage and securities firm catering to a variety of clients. Prior to the company's acquisition, it was among the largest firms in the securities industry with over 9,000 account execu ...
. In 2002, President Bush appointed Spogli to a three-year term with the
J. William Fulbright
James William Fulbright (April 9, 1905 – February 9, 1995) was an American politician, academic, and statesman who represented Arkansas in the United States Senate from 1945 until his resignation in 1974. , Fulbright is the longest serving chair ...
Foreign Scholarship board. Spogli quit working at Freeman Spogli & Co. on July 31, 2005, and was sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to Italy on August 10, 2005, and to San Marino in September 2006.
He left post on February 6, 2009. He received the America Award of the
Italy-USA Foundation in 2016.
See also
*
Bradford M. Freeman
Bradford M. "Brad" Freeman is an American businessman and conservative political fundraiser.
Career
Freeman was born and raised in Fargo, North Dakota, and attended Stanford University on a football scholarship. He received an MBA from Harvard B ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spogli, Ronald P.
1948 births
Living people
Ambassadors of the United States to Italy
Ambassadors of the United States to San Marino
American expatriates in Italy
American financial company founders
American venture capitalists
Businesspeople from Los Angeles
California Republicans
Harvard Business School alumni
Stanford University alumni
Stanford University trustees
American people of Italian descent
21st-century American diplomats