Biden puts up David Cohen as ambassador to Canada

President Joe Biden has nominated David Cohen, a tech executive who once served as chief of staff to the mayor of Philadelphia, to be his ambassador to Canada.

Cohen, a lawyer, lobbyist and fundraiser who currently serves as a senior adviser to the head of U.S. communications giant Comcast, had long been pegged as the likely nominee.

In addition to a number of roles in a variety of Comcast departments, a White House biography says Cohen also served as the company's chief diversity officer.

But he's no stranger to political circles: in addition to serving as the company's primary lobbyist, Cohen spent five years as chief of staff to Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell in the 1990s.

He also hosted the first fundraising event of Biden's successful 2020 presidential election campaign.

In other long-awaited nominations, Biden also named Victoria Reggie Kennedy, a prominent D.C. lawyer and widow of U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, to be his envoy to Austria, and Jamie Harpootlian to take up the post in Slovenia.