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: Republic of Austria
CANDIDATE: Trevor D. Traina
Trevor Traina is a technology entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist based in San Francisco. He has founded or co-founded five companies and sold four of them (including to Microsoft and Intuit). He is presently Founder and CEO of IfOnly, a company that allows buyers to purchase unique life experiences with a portion of the proceeds donated to charities and other good causes. His current investors include American Express, MasterCard, Sotheby’s, Conde Nast, and Hyatt.
In addition to working on the five startup companies, Mr. Traina has invested in many companies and has served as a director to several of them. Earlier in his career, he served as Group Manager at Microsoft and Brand Manager at Seagram’s. Mr. Traina’s experience in leading large organizations, managing personnel, and developing innovative and flexible approaches to contemporary challenges make him well qualified to serve as Ambassador to the Republic of Austria.
Mr. Traina’s non-profit advisory and board positions have included the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, the Haas School of Business and the Princeton University Art Museum. Traina is a collector of photography and has lent works of art to several museums.
Mr. Traina studied International Relations at Princeton University (AB) and was a graduate student in the UK at St Catherine’s College, Oxford (Special diploma in Social Studies). He has an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley.