U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, who testified before the House Intelligence Committee Wednesday during a public impeachment hearing of President Trump, has ties to western Washington.
Decades before Sondland was a U.S. Ambassador, he was a Mercer Island High School student. He was part of the Class of 1975. He also attended the University of Washington.
Sondland went on to own a chain of hotels, including Seattle’s Hotel Theodore and Hotel Max. He is also the founder and CEO of Provenance Hotels, which manages hotels across the country.
Sondland is the son of immigrants who fled Europe during the Holocaust and settled in the Northwest.
He repotedly donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee before being named the U.S. ambassador to the European Union.