NHL co-owner becomes first non-career political appointee as US ambassador to Cyprus

Ambassador John Breslow presented his credentials to President Nikos Christodoulides on September 9, formally beginning his tenure as the first non-career political appointee to serve as U.S. ambassador to Cyprus.

Christodoulides, speaking as he set off to meet Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman that morning, said a full first meeting with Breslow was scheduled for next week, and described the credentials ceremony as an early marker of ties he called limitless: “the ‘sky is the limit’,” he said, when it comes to relations between Washington and Nicosia.

Breslow’s appointment was welcomed in Washington too. At his Senate confirmation hearing in April, Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jim Risch called it a “historic advancement” in relations between the two countries , noting that Breslow would be the first political appointee, rather than career diplomat, to hold the Nicosia post. He succeeds Julie Davis , a career diplomat who served since February 2023.

Outside politics, Breslow is a minority owner of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights and the Premier League’s Bournemouth, and previously served as an alternate governor on the NHL’s Board of Governors. He has also donated $7 million to the University of Nebraska to help build an ice hockey arena.

He was nominated by President Donald Trump on October 21, 2025, confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 7, and arrived in Nicosia on September 5 to take charge of the U.S. Embassy.

Breslow’s business career centred on Linweld, an industrial gas and welding supply company he owned and chaired before selling it in 2006; he has said it grew into one of the largest companies of its kind in the United States.

In public service, he served two terms as Nebraska’s State Auditor of Public Accounts and later ran for governor of the state. Earlier in his career, he was a commissioner on the Lincoln Commission on Human Rights.

His philanthropic record includes chairing the Madonna Foundation, serving on the boards of the YMCA of Lincoln, Nebraska, and EMT Corp, and a $2 million donation to Arizona’s largest no-kill animal shelter, made in honour of his wife, Sonia. He has also been a major donor to Republican political campaigns, contributing more than $1.5 million in recent years, including substantial support for Trump.

A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, Breslow holds a Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is an experienced pilot with more than 48 years of flight experience, and has been married to Sonia Breslow for more than 50 years; they have three daughters and five grandchildren.

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First non-diplomat named US ambassador to Cyprus arrives on island