Ambassador Francis Rooney represented Florida’s 19th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives from 2017 to 2021. From 2005 to 2008 he served as the United States Ambassador to the Holy See, appointed by President George W. Bush and subsequently wrote a book about diplomacy and the US-Holy See relationship entitled The Global Vatican.
Ambassador Rooney is a successful businessman who brought decades of private sector experience to government. From 1984 to 2005 he served as CEO of Rooney Holdings, Inc., a diversified group of companies engaged in construction, energy, real estate development, finance and electronics manufacturing.
One of the subsidiaries is Manhattan Construction Company which was founded in 1896 and is in the fifth generation of Rooney family management and ownership. Significant projects the company has built include the Presidential Libraries for both George H. W. Bush in College Station, Texas and George W. Bush in Dallas, Texas; the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans football stadiums; the U.S. Capitol Visitor’s Center; the Walter Reed Army Institute for Research; and the International Terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. The company is currently completing one of the few biohazard level four medical and research facilities for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
Ambassador Rooney has served on numerous public and private boards, including Naples Community Hospital, St. Francis Hospital [Tulsa], the Florida Gulf Coast University Foundation, the University of Oklahoma College of International Studies, the University of Tulsa, the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, the Trust for the National Mall [DC], the Advisory Board of the Panama Canal Authority and the Young Presidents’ Organization [for which he served as the International President in 1997-1998]. He has served as a director of several traded companies including Helmerich & Payne, Cimarex, Laredo Petroleum, Bank of Oklahoma and Amarant [formerly Mercantil Commercebank].
He is currently a member of the National Council of the American Enterprise Institute, the Advisory Board of the Partnership for is Responsible Growth, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Inter-American Dialogue and the Council of American Ambassadors. He is also director and secretary of the Forum Club of Southwest Florida, on which he also served 2013-2016, and is a member of the Latin American Program Board of the Wilson Center and the Advisory Council of The Climate Initiative. He became a Knight of Malta in 2003, was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in November 2020 and the International Order of Isabela la Catolica, Commander by Number in June 2022. He received the John Carroll Award from Georgetown University ih April 2016 and was inducted into the Military Constantinian Order of Saint George in February 2023.
A graduate of Georgetown University [A.B. 1975] and Georgetown University Law Center [J.D. 1978], Ambassador Rooney has honorary degrees from the University of Notre Dame [2006] and the University of Dallas [2010], Seton Hall University [2021] and the Ave Maria Law School [2022]. He is a former member of the Texas and District of Columbia Bars and holds a U.S. Coast Guard 100 Ton Masters License [sailing endorsement].
He and his wife Kathleen live in Naples, Florida and Washington DC. They have three children, two grandsons and two granddaughters.
Ambassador Rooney is fluent in Spanish and regularly gives talks and interviews in Spanish. He is also conversational in Italian.