REPORT FOR THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
SUBJECT: Ambassadorial Nomination: Certificate of Demonstrated Competence — Foreign Service Act, Section 304(a)(4)
POST: Commonwealth of the Bahamas
CANDIDATE: Douglas Frederick Manchester
Douglas F. Manchester is a leading industrialist with accomplishments on a national and international scale in telecommunications, radio broadcast, medical instrumentation, publishing, and real estate development. He is chairman of Manchester Financial Group which has multiple divisions including Manchester Grand Resorts and M Commercial Properties. He is also former chairman and publisher of the San Diego Union-Tribune, the city’s largest media company. In addition to his other philanthropic engagements Mr. Manchester leads the Manchester Charitable Foundation. He currently serves as a member of The Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute Board of Trustees. His impressive business credentials, entrepreneurial spirit, philanthropic engagement and strong leadership and management skills, make him well-qualified to serve as Ambassador to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.
Mr. Manchester was known as the father of and a central figure in the development of the San Diego Convention Center, contributing land for its development and building its anchor properties — San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina, the second largest in the world, and the Manchester Grand Hyatt, also the second largest in the world. His many other investment and development projects include The Grand Del Mar Resort & Spa, the Manchester Executive Center, the Manchester Financial Building, the Whitetail Lodge and Golf Club, and the largest Fairmont now under construction in Austin, Texas. In 1973 he joined YPO, a global platform for chief executives to engage, and co-founded its San Diego chapter, as well as the Idaho chapter, the Rio Platte chapter, and the Vietnam chapter. He has served as chairman of the San Diego chapter and was voted Man-of-the-Year.
Mr. Manchester earned a B.S. from San Diego State University in 1965. He is a founder of the San Diego chapter of the Alexis de Tocqueville Society.