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New U.S. Ambassador to Italy Meets with Sons of Italy
Collaboration
to promote stronger U.S.-Italy exchange in business and
education discussed
Press
Contact: Kylie Cafiero, (202) 547-2900 kcafiero@osia.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. - July
15, 2005 Ronald
P. Spogli, the new U.S. ambassador to
Italy, met with the Order Sons of Italy
in America (OSIA) in Washington, D.C.
July 15 to discuss areas of collaboration
between OSIA and the U.S. embassy he
will head in Italy.
Educating young Italians
in their twenties and thirties about
the United States, its society, post-World
War II history and its commercial and
cultural affairs are at the top of the
new ambassador's list of priorities.
"Older Italians have a debt of gratitude
with the United States because they remember
what America did to liberate Italy from
the Nazis and help rebuild it in the
years following World War II," Spogli
said. "But younger Italians don't
care about events so far in the past and have little direct experience with America,
getting most of their information from the Internet and television. I don't want
to see that good will towards America end," he said.
For that reason, Spogli intends
to promote a cultural exchange program that would bring young Italians to the
U.S. for two to four-week periods or longer where they would live with American
families in cities across America. OSIA's coast-to-coast
grassroots network of Italian American families is one of the sources Spogli
would like to tap for this initiative.
Other areas of collaboration between OSIA
and the U.S. embassy in Italy include increasing study-abroad opportunities for
American students, promoting Italian language study in U.S. schools and encouraging
better U.S.-Italy trade relations. "U.S.-Italy
trade and commerce can and should be greatly enhanced," Spogli said.
Spogli will
take the oath of office in Rome on August 10. He was nominated by President George
W. Bush in June and approved by the U.S. Senate in July. He replaces the current
ambassador, Mel Sembler.
Ronald Spogli has a strong background in business and
international affairs. In 1983 he co-founded Freeman Spogli & Co., one of the
leading private equity investors with headquarters in Los Angeles, where he was
born and raised.
Since 2002, he has served on the J. William Fulbright Foreign
Scholarship Board. Fulbright scholarships are federally funded and promote international
educational exchange between the United States and 140 countries, including Italy.
Spogli
is fluent in Italian having studied in Florence as an undergraduate at Stanford
University. During his 35-year business career, he lived in Italy for several
years and has visited all 20 regions. His family emigrated from Gubbio in central
Italy's
Umbria region in 1912.
He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's most respected
honor society, in his junior year at Stanford where he earned a B.A. in history
magna cum laude and holds an MBA from Harvard University.
"We look forward to working closely with Ambassador Spogli on a broad range of
issues which are of great importance to OSIA, the Italian American community
and US-Italy relations," said Philip R. Piccigallo, OSIA's executive director.
OSIA is the largest and longest-established
national organization for men and women
of Italian descent in the United States.
Established in 1905, OSIA has more than
600,000 members and supporters and a
network of more than 745 chapters coast
to coast.
OSIA works at the community,
national and international levels to
promote the heritage and culture of an
estimated 26 million Italian Americans,
the nation's fifth largest ethnic group,
according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
To learn more, visit OSIA on the Web
at www.osia.org.
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