Robert Charles grew up in Wayne
A Maine native who spent the 1990s making drug policy in Washington has been nominated for one of the top jobs in the U.S. State Department.
President Bush has nominated Robert Charles, who grew up in Wayne, for the role of assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement.
The nomination has drawn applause from Sen. Olympia Snowe, who Wednesday supported the nomination in the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. In a prepared statement, the Maine Republican highlighted Charles’ work in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
A former staffer in the White House and the U.S. House of Representatives, Charles volunteered for active duty in the Navy in 2001. While there, he helped create a crisis watch team for the Chief of Naval Operations, the Navy’s highest ranking officer.
“Robert Charles has demonstrated leadership and vision in working to develop and carry forward critical national policy,” Snowe said. “His experience is all the more vital at a time when international law enforcement and anti-terrorism efforts have taken on an even more pressing and urgent tenor.”
A 1982 graduate of Dartmouth College, Charles spent summers working in the Reagan White House’s policy office. In 1984, he graduated from Oxford College and completed his law degree three years later from Columbia University School of Law. In 1997, he was appointed to a clerkship in the U.S. Court of Appeals.
By 1992, he was working the White House as the deputy associate director of the Office of Policy Development.
From 1995 to 1999, he went on to act as chief of staff and chief counsel for several groups in the House of Representatives, including the Speaker’s Task Force on Counternarcotics.
He left to begin with his wife, Marina, the Charles Group, a lobbying firm. The firm works with many nonprofits and specializes in defense and drug issues. The couple lives in Gaithersburg, Md., with their two children.
“I know this must be a very proud moment not only for Bobby Charles, but also for his wife, Marina, and their children, Nicholas and Sophia,” Snowe said Wednesday. “And those of us who are fellow Mainers are also proud of this remarkably accomplished nominee.”
dhartill@sunjournal.com
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