Today President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals for ambassadorships, the White House said in a statement: Brookings' Carlos Pascual, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, as ambassador to Mexico; the White House Office of Presidential Personnel's David Jacobson, a partner at the law firm Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal, as ambassador to Canada; Raytheon's James B. Smith, a retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general, as ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; the White House's Director for Presidential Personnel Donald Gips, a former domestic policy advisor to Vice President Al Gore, as ambassador to the Republic of South Africa; career Foreign Service Officer and U.S. ambassador to Burundi Patricia N. Moller as ambassador to the Republic of Guinea; businesswoman and philanthropist Nicole A. Avant as ambassador to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas; career FSO Kenneth H. Merten as ambassador to the Republic of Haiti; and career FSO and ambassador to Azerbaijan Anne E. Derse as ambassador to the Republic of Lithuania.