President Bush announced Friday that current Costa Rican ambassador Mark Langdale will be president of the George W. Bush Library Foundation effective Jan. 1, 2008. Langdale will oversee planning, operations and construction of the library.

The announcement was made without official confirmation that the library will be built at SMU. It has been almost 11 months since the library search committee entered into exclusive negotiations with SMU.

“We’re making progress every day,” SMU President R. Gerald Turner said, adding that SMU and the library committee are still trying to work out the details of a contract that would bring the library complex to campus.

Langdale was appointed ambassador in 2005, but previously spent 16 years as president of the largest hotel management company in Latin America. During Bush’s second term as governor of Texas, he was the chair of Texas’ Department of Economic Development.

Langdale was also a “Pioneer” for Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign, part of a group of people who pledged to raise $100,000 for his election effort.

“Ambassador Langdale brings strong leadership skills to the library effort,” Bush said in a prepared statement issued on Friday.

Langdale will work closely with the Bush family and the library committee led by Don Evans. His more notable responsibilities will include fundraising for the complex and working with the National Archives.

“I’m anxious to supervise the library foundation to develop a presidential library that will give historians access to important documents and information about the 43rd U.S. President,” Langdale said in the statement.