CHICAGO – DJE Holdings, parent company of Edelman and Zeno Group, has named Louis Susman, the outgoing US Ambassador to the United Kingdom, as non-executive chairman. He will provide strategic counsel to chairman Richard Edelman and the global senior leadership team and focus on global business development.

Prior to being named ambassador to the United Kingdom in 2009, Susman was the managing director and vice chairman of Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking. Earlier, while at Salomon Brothers—which would later become part of Citigroup—Susman played an integral role in several major mergers including Dayton Hudson’s purchase of Marshall Field’s; LG Electronics’ acquisition of Zenith Electronics Corporation; and General Dynamics’ purchase of Cessna Corporation.

Susman practiced law for 27 years and was a senior partner at the St. Louis-based law firm of Thompson & Mitchell, where his practice focused on mergers and acquisitions and general corporate law.

He was appointed to the US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy by Ronald Reagan in 1988, and served as a director of the Center for National Policy in Washington, DC, a non-partisan organization that examines national public policy issues. In 2004, he was John Kerry’s national finance chairman, and later was a senior advisor to President Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign.