Jeffrey DeLaurentis  Jeffrey DeLaurentis (born 1954) is an American diplomat who served as the Chargé d'affaires ad interim of the Embassy of the United States, Havana from 2015 to 2017. DeLaurentis has ambassadorial rank in the State Department because his prior position at the UN was a US Senate-confirmed ambassadorial position. Cuba and the United States formally restored diplomatic relations on July 20, 2015, after having severed diplomatic ties in 1961 amid the Cold War. DeLaurentis is a graduate of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He also studied toward a doctorate in political science at Columbia's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Barack Obama officially nominated DeLaurentis as United States Ambassador to Cuba on September 27, 2016. DeLaurentis finished his 3-year cycle on July 7, 2017 and was replaced by Scott Hamilton.