President Bill Clinton Name Gordon Giffin Preceded by James Blanchard Party Democratic Party | Political party Democratic Succeeded by Paul Cellucci Profession Attorney | |
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Born December 29, 1949 (age 74)
Springfield, Massachusetts ( 1949-12-29 ) Alma mater Duke University
Emory University Education Emory University, Duke University | ||
Lens conference 2004 gordon giffin and lloyd axworthy thursday lunch
Gordon D. Giffin (born December 29, 1949) became the thirty-fourth Ambassador of the United States to Canada on September 17, 1997.
Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, Gordon Giffin moved to Canada before his first birthday. He lived in Montreal and Toronto for 17 years, attending Valois Park Elementary School in Pointe Claire and Richview Collegiate in Etobicoke. Giffin earned a B.A. from Duke University in 1971 and a J.D. from Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia in 1974.
The Ambassador was nominated for his position by President Bill Clinton on July 1, 1997, and confirmed by the full United States Senate on July 31. Unique among U.S. envoys to Canada, he spent seventeen years of his childhood growing up in Canada.
Prior to his appointment, Giffin practiced law as a senior partner in the firm of Long, Aldridge & Norman (now McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP). He has since returned to McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, which has merged into Dentons LLP, and heads the firm's US Public Policy and Regulation practice. While on an ambassador's trip to Montreal he took in a Montreal Canadiens hockey game, where a Molson Ice was dumped on his head for his outward support of Bill Clinton. From 1975 to 1979, he was Legislative Director and Chief Counsel to U.S. Senator Sam Nunn in Washington, D.C.
He is only the second U.S. envoy to Canada in history to have come from the southern part of the United States (the first, William Walton Butterworth of Louisiana, served from 1962 to 1968; David Wilkins of South Carolina served from 2005 to 2009.)
He expressed confidence Hillary Clinton would become President of the United States of America in a November 8, 2016 interview with Canada's Business New Network (BNN) stating "I was there during the first Clinton Presidency and now we're about to have the second."
Mr. Giffin sits on the board of several Canadian companies including Canadian National Railway, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Transalta.