George J. Mitchell
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- For musician see George Mitchell (musician), for billionaire see George P. Mitchell
George John Mitchell, GBE (born August 20, 1933 in Waterville, Maine) is Chairman of the Walt Disney Company.
Mitchell's father George was a day labourer and his mother Mary Saad was a textile worker who immigrated to the US from Lebanon at the age of 18. He was a United States Senator from Maine from 1980 to 1995. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He was an attorney from the 1960s. In 1974 he won the Democratic nomination for governor of Maine but lost in the general election to independent candidate James B. Longley. He was later a federal judge until he was appointed to the Senate in May 1980 by the governor of Maine, Joseph Brennan, when Edmund Muskie resigned to become U.S. Secretary of State.
He was elected to a full term in the Senate in 1982, reelected in 1988 and did not run for reelection in 1994. He rose quickly in the Senate Democratic leadership, serving as Deputy President pro tempore from 1987 to 1988. He then served as Senate Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995. Since 1995 he has been active in the Northern Ireland peace process. He has frequently been mentioned in the past in conjunction with potential appointment for the position of Commissioner of Baseball, but nothing to accomplish this has ever been effected.
He is the Chancellor of Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, and namesake of the George J. Mitchell Scholarship, which sponsors graduate study for twelve Americans each year in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
He is the founder of the Mitchell Institute, in Portland, Maine, whose mission is to increase the likelihood that young people from every community in Maine will aspire to, pursue and achieve a college education.
He is Partner and Chairman of the Global Board of DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, a global law firm.
On March 4, 2004, Disney's board of directors, on which he had served since the 1990s, named him Michael Eisner's replacement as Chairman of the Board after 43% of the company's shares were voted against Eisner's reelection. Mitchell himself received a 25% negative vote, a fact which led dissident Disney shareholders Roy E. Disney and Stanley Gold to criticize Mitchell's appointment, whom they saw as Eisner's puppet.
He also served as co-chairman (with Newt Gingrich) of the Congressionally mandated Task Force on the United Nations, which released its findings and recommendations on June 15, 2005.
| Preceded by: Robert C. Byrd 1977-1989 |
Senate Democratic Leader | Followed by: Tom Daschle 1995-2005 |
| Preceded by: Ed Muskie 1959-1980 |
U.S. Senators from Maine | Succeeded by: Olympia Snowe 1995-present |
| Preceded by: Michael Eisner | Disney Chairmen 2004–current | Succeeded by: current incumbent |