Raleigh lawyer Jim Cain was sworn-in as ambassador to Denmark in a ceremony Wednesday at the Old State Capitol.
Cain, a Republican Party activist, was nominated by President Bush. He's a one-time campaign aide to Sen. Jesse Helms, who attended the ceremony, and former president of the Carolina Hurricanes hockey team.
'Denmark and the United States have a cherished relationship that is over 200 years old. We are allies and we are friends," Cain said in prepared remarks. "For generations our governments and our people have worked as partners to advance the interests of democracy, of freedom, and of human rights, not only in our own respective sovereign territories, but also throughout the globe.
"Denmark is with us in Iraq and Afghanistan providing troops on the ground and generous humanitarian and reconstruction support for the peoples of these two long-suffering countries."
Cain, a fund-raiser for the state GOP and Bush and considered a potential gubernatorial candidate in 2008, is a partner in the Raleigh office of Kilpatrick Stockton LLP, where he spent 15 years before joining the National Hockey League's Hurricanes in 2000. He left the team and returned to the law firm in December 2002.
Cain earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Wake Forest University. He worked in campaigns for President Reagan and Helms, and is one of the state's delegates to the Republican National Committee.
In 2004, he was asked by Bush to serve as presidential emissary to the Philippines.
"Because of my experience in the private sector, I am keenly interested in focusing on trade issues: promoting American exports to Denmark and Northern Europe, including of course an array of products from North Carolina," he said in the remarks.
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