Finally new US ambassador to Iceland

Robert C. Barber was earlier this week sworn in as the next United States ambassador to Iceland before Vice President Joe Biden. He will arrive in the country later this month according to the US Embassy in Iceland.

Previously the United States hadn't had an ambassador in Iceland since the former ambassador Luis Arreaga left office in November 2013. Barber was originally appointed as ambassador to Iceland by President Barack Obama in October the same year but the US Senate only confirmed the appointment last December.

Barber was born in 1950 and raised in Charleston, South Carolina according to the website Allgov.com. He earned a J.D. at Boston University School of Law in 1977 and a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design in the same year.

Barber became an assistant district attorney for New York County after law school from 1977 to 1981. He joined the law firm Looney & Grossman LLP in Boston in 1981 where he has worked ever since. He became a partner in 1985 and served as managing partner from 2001 to 2003.