16 Facts About Ulrich Brechbuhl

Thomas Ulrich Brechbuhl was born on January 19,1964 and is a Swiss-American businessman and former government official, having held the position of Counselor of the United States Department of State from May 1,2018, to January 20,2021.

Ulrich Brechbuhl was appointed by and reported to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and replaced Maliz E Beams.

Ulrich Brechbuhl attended the Waldorf School of Garden City through 12th grade, serving as president of the student council his senior year.

Ulrich Brechbuhl graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1986.

Ulrich Brechbuhl was a classmate of Brian Bulatao and Mike Pompeo and later helped Pompeo found Thayer Aerospace.

Ulrich Brechbuhl joined Pompeo and two other college friends in founding Thayer Aerospace, which was partly funded by Wichita's Koch Venture Capital, Cardinal Investment Co.

Ulrich Brechbuhl's initial focus was to accelerate hiring to fill the many unfilled positions in the department.

Ulrich Brechbuhl was delegated "sweeping control over the nomination process, drawing up lists of candidates for jobs and purging those" likely to face too much opposition from the White House or Senate.

One of Ulrich Brechbuhl's initiatives was to shepherd the creation of an "ethos" statement that would help unify an understaffed department with morale issues.

On March 3,2020, Ulrich Brechbuhl took on the role of acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, as designated by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Ulrich Brechbuhl has been involved in a controversy regarding mistreatment of State Department employees that was ultimately investigated by Office of the Inspector General of the Department of State.

Ulrich Brechbuhl was identified in a 2019 whistleblower complaint as someone who listened in on Trump's July 25,2019, phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Subsequently, a representative of the State Department denied that Ulrich Brechbuhl was on the call.

Ulrich Brechbuhl noted the packet came to him from Pompeo, who said it "came over," and Ulrich Brechbuhl reportedly presumed it was from the White House.

Ulrich Brechbuhl is one of several State Department employees connected to American policy work in Ukraine who have been scheduled to appear before congressional investigators.

House impeachment investigators issued a subpoena to Ulrich Brechbuhl to testify on November 6,2019, but Ulrich Brechbuhl defied the subpoena and travelled to Germany with Mike Pompeo instead.