UNITED STATES SENATE
SUBJECT: Ambassadorial Nomination: Certificate of
Demonstrated Competence — Foreign Service
Act, Section 304(a)(4)
POST: Commonwealth of The Bahamas
CANDIDATE: Calvin Smyre
Former GA State Representative Calvin Smyre served for forty-eight years as an elected Representative in the Georgia State Assembly and served as Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus within the Assembly for over a decade and serves as Chairman Emeritus of the Caucus. He was the ‘Dean’ of the Georgia House of Representatives and served on the most important panels of the House including the Appropriations Committee, the Rules Committee (former Chairman), and the Higher Education Committee (former Chairman). Nationally, he is President Emeritus of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators and a former member of the National Conference of State Legislators Executive Committee.
Smyre served for almost four decades as executive vice president of corporate affairs for Synovus Financial Corporation, a multi-financial services company with more than $58 billion in assets. He was a Synovus representative on the Financial Services Roundtable in Washington D.C. and was also the President of the Synovus Foundation. He has served on the Board of Trustees of the Medical College of Georgia Foundation; the Morehouse School of Medicine; the Jack D. Hughston Foundation and the Fort Valley State University Foundation as its Chair. His vast experience as a legislator, his demonstrated ability to work across party lines to reach consensus on complex legislation, and his success as a leader in the business community and on challenging social issues, make him well-qualified to serve as Ambassador to the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.
Former Representative Smyre earned his B.S. from Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, Georgia and holds an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Morehouse School of Medicine. He has received over 200 local, state, and national honors/awards. In 2009 the Congressional Black Caucus presented him with the prestigious Phoenix Award. In 1980 he was selected by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as one of the “Ten Best Legislators” in the State and in 1985 and 2005 he was selected by his peers as the National “Legislator of the Year”.