Finance Committee Approves Nominees for USTR, Treasury, HHS, Tax Court

WASHINGTON –Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., yesterday led the committee to report five nominees:

Robert Holleyman to be a deputy United States Trade Representative at USTR
Nathan Sheets to be an under secretary for international affairs at the Treasury Department
Ramin Toloui, of Iowa, to be a deputy under secretary for international finance at the Treasury Department
Maria Cancian to be assistant secretary for children and families (family support) at the Department of Health and Human Services
Cary Douglas Pugh to be a judge on the United States Tax Court

Holleyman, Sheets, Toloui and Pugh were approved unanimously. Cancian was approved by a vote of 22-2.

“Each of these nominees brings the skills and experience necessary to take on these new roles,” Wyden said. “I look forward to working with them on a range of issues, and I hope to see the full Senate act soon on their nominations.”

Holleyman is currently the CEO and founder of Cloud4Growth, a cloud technology development company. Prior to founding Cloud4Growth in 2013, Holleyman was the president and CEO of BSA | The Software Alliance from 1990 to 2013. Holleyman previously served as senior counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Prior to that, Holleyman was legislative director and assistant to former U.S. Senator Russell B. Long. Holleyman received a B.A. from Trinity University and a J.D. from Louisiana State University.

Sheets served as the global head of international economics at Citigroup. Prior to joining Citigroup, Sheets worked at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System for 18 years in a variety of positions, including director of the Board’s Division of International Finance and economist to the Federal Open Market Committee. From 2006 to 2007, while on leave from the Federal Reserve, he served as a senior advisor to the U.S. executive director of the International Monetary Fund. Sheets received a B.A. from Brigham Young University and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Toloui served as global co-head of emerging markets portfolio management at PIMCO. Toloui joined PIMCO in 2006. Previously, Toloui held various positions at the Department of the Treasury, including director of the Office of the Western Hemisphere, senior advisor to the undersecretary for International Affairs, and deputy director and international economist in the Office of Central and Southeastern Europe. Toloui received an A.B. from Harvard University and an M.Phil. from Balliol College at Oxford University.

Cancian is a professor and university administrator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW). She has served as associate dean for fiscal initiatives at UW’s College of Letters and Science since 2012, and associate dean for social sciences since 2011. She has been a professor at UW’s La Follette School of Public Affairs and School of Social Work since 1993. Cancian was a W.T. Grant distinguished fellow in residence at the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families in 2010. From 2004 to 2008, Cancian was the director of UW’s Institute for Research on Poverty and from 2001 to 2002, she was a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation. She was a visiting fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California in 1999. Cancian received a B.A. from Swarthmore College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Pugh is currently counsel in the tax department at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, L.L.P., a position she has held since 2005. From 2002 to 2005, Pugh was the special counsel to the chief counsel of the Internal Revenue Service. From 1999 to 2002, Pugh served as tax counsel for the Senate Committee on Finance, where she was responsible for advising committee members on individual and corporate tax issues. Pugh received a B.A. from Duke University, an M.A. from Stanford University, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.

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