Fernandez ’77 sworn in at State Dept.

Jose Fer­nan­dez '77 was sworn in as the as­sis­tant sec­re­tary of state for eco­nomic, en­ergy, and busi­ness af­fairs on Dec. 1.

Fer­nan­dez, who until re­cently served as a mem­ber of the Col­lege’s Board of Trustees, is re­spon­si­ble for lead­ing the bu­reau that over­sees areas in­clud­ing in­ter­na­tional fi­nance-re­lated poli­cies, eco­nomic sanc­tions, fi­nanc­ing of com­bat against ter­ror­ists, in­ter­na­tional trade and in­vest­ment pol­icy, sup­port for U.S. busi­nesses abroad, as well as in­ter­na­tional en­ergy se­cu­rity, telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions and trans­porta­tion pol­icy.

Fer­nan­dez was nom­i­nated for the po­si­tion by Pres­i­dent Barack Obama on Aug. 6. He was con­firmed by the Sen­ate on Nov. 20.

"I am grate­ful for the con­fi­dence shown in me by the pres­i­dent and Sec­re­tary Clin­ton, and if con­firmed, you have my word that I will work tire­lessly to ad­vance our coun­try's in­ter­na­tional eco­nomic ob­jec­tives to se­cure greater pros­per­ity and op­por­tu­nity for the Amer­i­can peo­ple," Fer­nan­dez said to the Sen­ate Com­mit­tee on For­eign Re­la­tions after being nom­i­nated.

Fer­nan­dez was pre­vi­ously a part­ner at Latham & Watkins, the New York law firm, where he served as the global chair of the firm's Latin Amer­ica prac­tice.

Fer­nan­dez grew up in a small town in Cuba, and moved with his fam­ily to New Jer­sey, where his mother worked as a seam­stress in a local fac­tory fol­low­ing the Cuban Rev­o­lu­tion, ac­cord­ing to a Col­lege press re­lease. He en­tered Dart­mouth in 1973 and grad­u­ated as a his­tory major. He later re­ceived a law de­gree from Co­lum­bia Uni­ver­sity.

Fer­nan­dez's daugh­ter, Sarah, was re­cently ac­cepted to Dart­mouth as a mem­ber of the Class of 2014, ac­cord­ing to the re­lease.