
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Derek Chollet has been appointed as U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin's Chief of Staff.
'He is one of the most distinguished, far-sighted, and skillful national-security practitioners of his generation, and I am grateful to him for taking on this key assignment at such an important moment,' Austin said in a statement announcing Chollet's appointment.
Derek Chollet will assume his new role in July.
Chollet has served with distinction in senior policy roles at the White House, the Pentagon, and the Department of State, including his current role as Counselor of the Department of State, where he has performed as one of the top policy advisers to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
During his time at the State Department, he has taken on some of the toughest diplomatic assignments, from the Balkans and Myanmar to Pakistan and Northern Ireland, and for the past nine months has been key to shaping Washington's response to the crisis in the Middle East.
Blinken announced that he is appointing Tom Sullivan as the next Counselor of the Department of State. He has been serving as Blinken's Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy.
Chollet will be returning to the Pentagon after serving as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs during 2012-15. He has also served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Strategic Planning on the National Security Council staff and as the Principal Deputy Director of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff.
Until 2020, he was Executive Vice President and Senior Advisor for Security and Defense Policy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
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