James Costos

Costos was born in 1963 and grew up in Lowell, Massachusetts. He is a second-generation Greek-American, whose father served as a U.S. Marine and was stationed at Camp David during the Truman administration.[2] He is the first in his family to graduate college. He earned a degree in political science from the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 1985.[3]

Ambassador Costos was a corporate leader and executive in the international retail and international entertainment industries, most notably at HBO and Tod's. He is an active supporter of humanitarian organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign and the Santa Monica Museum of Art, and an advocate for cultural institutions and cultural diplomacy. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Humane Society of the United States, the country's largest animal protection organization.[3]

President Obama nominated Costos for the position of U.S. Ambassador to Spain and Principality of Andorra on June 14, 2013.[4] The U.S. Senate voted to confirm the nomination on August 1, 2013, and Costos was sworn in on August 22, 2013.[3][5] He presented his credentials to the Spanish government in Madrid on September 24, 2013.[5]

Ambassador Costos visits Rota

His business career has made him expert on the issue of the enforcement of laws against digital piracy, a particular concern of U.S. businesses with respect to Spain. His initial focus, he said, was on issues of international security and thanking Spain for allowing the U.S. to deploy part of its anti-missile shield defense and for hosting U.S. military bases. In September 2013, Costos visited the bases at Rota and Morón to mark the 60th anniversary of the agreement under which they were established.[6]

In July 2016, President Obama was the first sitting president to visit Spain in 15 years. Ambassador Costos accompanied President Obama, the first U.S. president to visit Naval Station Rota, where Costos oversaw the arrival of four U.S. Navy destroyers based there, as part of a NATO anti-missile defense shield. [7]

In his speech at Rota, President Obama said, "Spain is a strong NATO ally, we’re grateful for Spain’s many decades of hosting U.S. forces, and we’re major trading partners. That’s why the United States is deeply committed to maintaining our relationship with a strong, unified Spain. We need Spain’s continued contributions to the campaign against ISIL, to counter-terrorism efforts that prevent attacks and to NATO efforts that enhance our defense and deterrence posture. We need a growing Spanish economy to help sustain trade, growth in the EU and entrepreneurship so that globalization is creating jobs and opportunity for all people, not just a few at the top.” [8]

Deputy Secretary of State Antony "Tony" Blinken, with U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain and the Principality of Andorra James Costos, visits Campus Madrid, Google's space for entrepreneurs, in Madrid, Spain, on July 27, 2015.

Building on the policy objectives of President Obama to promote global entrepreneurship, Ambassador Costos created and launched an event called InCubed (IN3) in June 2015, where innovators, investors and institutions would meet to network and exchange ideas. “You said you wanted access to Silicon Valley,” Costos told them. “Well, I have brought Silicon Valley to you." [9]

In October 2013 the Spanish government summoned him to address allegations that the National Security Agency had recently collected data on 60 million telephone calls in Spain.[10]

While visiting California in 2014, President Obama and his wife Michelle stayed at the Costos-Smith home.[11]

In June 2015, he joined other gay U.S. ambassadors in a statement supporting international trade agreements, linking open markets to the development of open societies that provide civil rights protections.[12]

In February 2017, Ambassador Costos joined the Board of Directors of PJT Partners, an advisory-focused investment bank. Paul J. Taubman is the Chairman and CEO of PJT Partners. Mr. Taubman founded PJT Partners in early 2013 and, in October 2014, announced the intention to merge into the spun-off Blackstone advisory businesses.[13]

In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Spain’s Grupo Secuoya, owner of the Madrid studios used by Netflix for its first European Production Hub, named Ambassador Costos, former HBO Executive, as president of Secuoya Studios, its TV fiction-film content production arm.[14]

Costos was appointed in October 2020, to the board of the directors of Grifols S.A., a Spanish global biotherapeutics company listed on the IBEX35. Grifols employs 24,000 people and had revenues of 5.1 billion euros in 2019, which grew by 13.6%, while net profit increased by 4.8% to 625 million euros. [15]

Grífols began Phase 3 clinical trials in patients with COVID-19 with its therapeutic manufactured in Clayton. NC. Grifols is manufacturing the experimental therapy from the plasma of healthy, recovered COVID-19 patients, and was first to deploy a large-scale collection of this plasma, as well as the first to manufacture and deliver the clinical anti-SARS-CoV-2 hyperimmune globulin. [16]

Costos characterized President Trump's handling of COVID-19 as a complete failure, "my country failed the world in this effort by not being adequately prepared for the pandemic and by recklessly refusing to take the lead on a coordinated global response." He insists that "competent leadership and a firm reliance on science is required to take the necessary actions to save our planet for future generations to come. Science and research are not fake news."[17]

Costos explained, "We must work to restore trust in our leadership and join together to solve our world problems. Electing former Vice-President Joe Biden to the White House in November is the fundamental first step Americans should take to heal the soul and spirit of our nation, with the concomitant goal of immediately refocusing our nation’s global agenda."[18]

Costos lives in Los Angeles, California, with his partner Michael S. Smith, the official interior designer for the Obama White House. He is a vegetarian, but imposed no dietary restrictions on embassy functions. On the subject of LGBT rights, Costos has said "I am not an activist. I broadly support human rights for straight, gay, women’s issues. And I just happen to be gay.... This doesn't define me as a person, but it is part of who I am. It's like being a vegetarian: it's one more facet of James Costos."[6] He said he and Smith had been welcomed in Spain "with great accommodation" and that because Spain already provides LGBT civil rights, the role he and Smith played was a symbolic for those who still suffered from a lack of enforcement in support of their rights: "What we can do through our messaging is give a sense of hope."[19]

After leaving the White House in January 2017, the Obamas departed Washington for Palm Springs, where they were guests in the Costos-Smith home for several days before traveling to the British Virgin Islands to stay at the home of Sir Richard Branson.[20]

• List of LGBT Ambassadors of the United States

• U.S. Embassy Madrid
• Ambassador Costos' Blog on ElMundo.es