Robert Francis Cekuta was recently nominated by President Barack Obama as the new U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan.

Cekuta would replaced Richard Morningstar, who has served as the ambassador since 2012 and whose mandate expires in August.

Cekuta has served since 2011 as the principal deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Energy Resources at the U.S. Department of State.

He also served as the deputy assistant secretary for energy, sanctions and commodities in the Bureau of Economic, Energy and Business Affairs at the Department of State from 2010 to 2011, and as the senior advisor for food security in the Bureau of Economic Energy and Business Affairs in 2010.

Prior to that, Cekuta was the senior deputy coordinating director for economic and development affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, from 2009 to 2010, and served as the minister-counselor for economic affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Japan, from 2007 to 2009. He also served as the minister-counselor for economic affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, Germany, from 2003 to 2007.

Cekuta holds a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University, a master's from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and a master's from the National Defense University.