William R. Timken
William Robert Timken, Jr. ( born 1938 in Canton, Ohio) is an American businessman. From 2005 to December 2008, he was Ambassador of the United States in Berlin.
Life
After his high school, he studied until 1960 at Stanford University and then at Harvard Business School. Since 1962 he worked in the family business Timken Company ( a supplier to the automotive industry), which he headed from 1975 to the end of 2003. His great-grandfather came from Tarmstedt in Bremen and was in 1838 emigrated to the age of seven in the United States. Timken is married and has six children. Four children are from his first wife, Suzanne, of whom he divorced in 1996. William Timken, Jr., is a Knight of the French Legion of Honour.
Ambassador to Germany
In his inaugural speech Timken designated an effective German - American cooperation as the key to strong transatlantic relations, which lies very much in the national interest of the two countries as well as in the interest of the world.
The U.S. State Department announced on Timken's appointment, given the economic problems of Germany was aware of a contractor nominated who can analyze the situation well.
On his appointment emphasized the German press that he had no diplomatic experience and - like its predecessor - a word of German language and the fact that he supported the recent presidential election campaign of incumbent U.S. President George W. Bush with large donations and to be diligent Spendenaquisitor distinguished. The politically and diplomatically inexperienced Timken Jr. was not a career diplomat, but ( like several other ambassadors also ) a political envoy that bought its activity through generous donations to political parties; Timken himself saw this as an advantage. Observers praised partially his commitment especially in projects for the integration of migrants. This included, for example, an exchange program for underprivileged students.
Shortly before his scheduled removal Timken gave the world on Sunday an interview in which he praised the merits of George W. Bush and several times allegedly critical of the new president, Barack Obama, commented. This he threw his uncritical added drug use in previous years (although Bush with Obama in this area has a lot in common ). Even "Europe's media " are affected by Timken settlement: "I 'm sorry that the European media report as one-sided, instead of the prevailing opinion to question. In the case of Bush, they were very unfair. "
In the tenure as ambassador, the mobile phone monitoring of Angela Merkel in Berlin, which was spying on the embassy in Berlin from 2002 to 2013 falls.