JERUSALEM (JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu named Ron Dermer as Israel’s next ambassador to the United States.

The Prime Minister’s Office announced Tuesday in a statement that Netanyahu had decided to appoint his former senior advisor to the post.

Dermer, who immigrated to Israel from Florida 15 years ago, will take up his new post later in the year and succeed Michael Oren, who also is American-born. Oren announced on July 5 that he would be vacating his post in the fall.

Dermer left the Prime Minister’s Office in March after four years as Netanyahu’s senior advisor. He previously served as the economic attaché at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, from 2005 to 2008.

Dermer is 42, married and the father of five children. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business and holds a master’s degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford.  He also co-wrote with Natan Sharansky the bestselling book “The Case For Democracy: The Power Of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny And Terror.”

“Ron Dermer has all the qualities necessary to successfully fill this important post. I have known him for many years and I know that Ron will faithfully represent the State of Israel in the capital of our greatest ally – the USA. On behalf of the citizens of Israel, I wish him great success,” Netanyahu said in a statement released Tuesday.