Former IEDC Official Tapped by Trump
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowPresident Donald Trump has announced plans to nominate a former Indiana Economic Development Corp. executive to a key post. Stephen Akard, who has served as chief of staff, vice president, general counsel and director of international development for the IEDC, has been tapped to serve as Director General of the Foreign Service.
Akard currently serves as a senior advisor in the Office of the Under Secretary for Economic Growth in the U.S. Department of State
An IUPUI graduate, Akard worked for the IEDC from 2005 to January 2017. Prior to returning to Indiana, he served as an officer in the foreign service at the State Department with time spent in India and Belgium. He also served as a special assistant in the Executive Secretariat.
Akard is the latest in a string of Indiana representatives appointed to federal positions by Trump. In November, the then-president-elect nominated Seema Verma, the architect of the state’s Healthy Indiana Plan, to serve as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Former Senator Dan Coats was in March nominated to serve as Trump’s director of intelligence. The president also tapped former Indiana State Health Commissioner Jerome Adams to serve as U.S. Surgeon General and former Indiana Department of Agriculture Director Ted McKinney as Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.