Michael Richard Pompeo is an American politician, diplomat, lawyer, and former army officer. He was nominated as the new US secretary of state by President Donald Trump on March 13, 2018.
Pompeo was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday and sworn-in shortly afterwards as the 70th US Secretary of State. Pompeo is a former three-term US congressman from Kansas. He became director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and then US secretary of state under Trump. Pompeo is the first CIA director to lead the State Department.
He was born on Dec. 30, 1963, and raised in Southern California, Orange. In 1986, he graduated first in his class from the US Military Academy at West Point, where he studied engineering management. He had also earned a law degree from Harvard Law School and was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.
During his time as an officer in the US Army from 1986 to 1991, he served as a cavalry officer.
In 1996 he founded Thayer Aerospace in his hometown of Kansas along with three partners. The company expanded to more than 400 employees within a decade.
Pompeo sold his interest in Thayer Aerospace in 2006, and became president of an independent oilfield equipment business, Sentry International.
He earned election to the first of three House terms in 2010 in the US House of Representatives, representing the 4th congressional district of Kansas from January 2011 to January 2017.
The conservative Pompeo became known for his tough stances on national security. He is one of the opponents of the Iran nuclear deal and supports surveillance programs.
One week before he was confirmed as secretary of state, Pompeo had a one-to-one secret meeting with Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, to discuss preparations for Kim’s summit with Trump in May or early June.
