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https://nypost.com/2018/05/26/campaign-contributor-helped-obamas-score-netflix-deal/

Campaign contributor helped Obamas score Netflix deal

The couple last week signed a creative production deal with Netflix that one entertainment industry source said could be valued at more than $50 million.

Ted Sarandos, a major campaign contributor for Obama and the streaming giant’s creative content chief who oversees an $8 billion budget, helped to broker the deal, the source told The Post.

Sarandos and his wife, Nicole Avant, bundled nearly $600,000 in contributions to Obama from their friends and associates during the 2012 presidential campaign.

The couple is friends with the Obamas, and Avant served as US ambassador to the Bahamas from 2009 to 2011, during the former president’s first term.

Her father, Clarence, a music exec, bundled a total of nearly $450,000 for Obama’s presidential campaigns.

wiki:

Avant was appointed United States Ambassador to the Bahamas by President Barack Obama on June 16, 2009, and was sworn in on September 9, 2009 and served until November 22, 2011.[2] [3]

Avant resigned her post in November 2011. She then assisted with fundraising for Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election. A 2012 United States State Department report[8] noted that Avant’s appointment was preceded by “an extended period of dysfunctional leadership and mismanagement.” The report was critical of Avant’s frequent travel and use of the office in the Ambassador’s residence rather than the office inside the U.S. Embassy. The report was also complimentary of Avant’s work with law enforcement and her relationships with the local government and concluded that she had been “an effective communicator of U.S. policy and advocate for U.S.-Bahamian relations.” [8] Upon her resignation, The Tribune praised the Ambassador as one of the more popular U.S. Ambassadors to ever serve in the Bahamas.[9]

Avant is married to Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer for Netflix,[10][11]

https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/02/23/another-obama-fundraiser-turns-out-to-be-a-bad-ambassador/

Another Obama fundraiser turns out to be a bad ambassador

According to a new State Department inspector general’s report on the U.S. Embassy in the Bahamas, Ambassador Nicole Avant presided over “an extended period of dysfunctional leadership and mismanagement, which has caused problems throughout the embassy” since she was appointed by the president in 2009. Prior to being America’s envoy in the Caribbean, Avant was Southern California finance co-chairwoman of Obama’s presidential campaign and vice president of Interior Music Publishing.

According to her glowingly positive Wikipedia page, Avant spent her time in the Bahamas “focused on five priority initiatives: Education, Alternative Energy, Economic and Small Business Development, Women’s Empowerment and Raising awareness of the challenges facing people with disabilities.”

But according to the State Department’s internal investigation, Avant was away from the embassy an inordinate amount of time — mainly shuttling back and forth to her home in Los Angeles — and when she was in town, she worked from her residence most of the day.

Avant was absent from the embassy 276 days between September 2009 and November 2011, including 102 “personal” days and 77 “work travel” days to the United States, of which only 23 were on official orders.