| Office: | United States Ambassador to Austria |
| President: | Donald Trump |
| Term Start: | May 24, 2018 |
| Term End: | January 20, 2021 |
| Predecessor: | Alexa L. Wesner |
| Successor: | Victoria Reggie Kennedy |
| Birth Place: | San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Businessman |
| Education: | Princeton University (BA) University of Oxford Haas School of Business (MBA) |
| Parents: | Diane Buchanan Wilsey John Traina |
| Spouse: | Alexis Swanson |
| Children: | 2 |
| Relatives: | Herbert Henry Dow (great-great-grandfather) Wiley T. Buchanan Jr. (grandfather) Todd Traina (brother) Danielle Steel (ex-stepmother) Nick Traina (adopted stepbrother) |
Trevor D. Traina (born 1968) is an American businessman who served as the United States Ambassador to Austria from 2018 to 2021.
Traina was born in San Francisco, California to Diane Buchanan Wilsey and John Traina in 1968. His father was a shipping and cruise executive and Napa Valley vintner and art collector.[1] [2] His parents divorced when he was 12. He has a younger brother Todd, and five younger half-siblings through his father's marriage to Danielle Steel. He was also brother to Steel's son Nick Traina, who was adopted and given the family name by his father. His maternal grandfather Wiley T. Buchanan Jr. was U.S. Ambassador to Austria from 1975 to 1977.[3]
Traina graduated from Princeton University with an A.B. in politics in 1990. He later studied at the University of Oxford and has an MBA from the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.[4]
Traina started his career as brand manager at Seagram's. As an entrepreneur, he was involved in the creation of CompareNet, which was bought by Microsoft in 1999.[5] In total he founded or co-founded five technology startups which were all sold. The most recent was IfOnly which was sold to MasterCard in August 2020.[6]
Traina was an honorary advisor to the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco (where his mother had been board Chair), as well as the Haas School of Business, the Princeton University Art Museum and other institutions. He has been published in Huffington Post[7] and for Town and Country magazine.
On January 23, 2018, President Donald Trump nominated Traina as Ambassador to Austria.[8] The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Traina's nomination on March 22, 2018.[9] [10]
Traina risked controversy for supporting the LGBTQ community by flying a rainbow flag at the Embassy during Vienna Pride despite a ban from the State Department on doing so.[11] Traina is credited with arranging the most high level meetings between Austria and the US in history and bringing about an era of Verbundenheit or "new closeness" between the two countries that had not before been seen.[12]
The Secretary of Defense awarded the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service to Traina in January 2021. The Chancellor of Austria awarded Traina the Austrian Grand Declaration of Honor in Gold in January 2021. Traina has been awarded over two dozen patents from the USPTO.
Publications: American Photography. 2020 Walter Moser, Anna Heinrich, Trevor Traina
Traina is married to Alexis Swanson Traina.[13] He and his wife have two children Johnny and Delphina.[14] His hobby is collecting photographs, an exhibition of his collection in summer 2012 at the Fine Arts Museum was discussed in the media.[15] [16] Traina made a major loan of photographs to the Albertina museum in Vienna for the Fall 2021 exhibition American Photography.[17] In 2023 Traina paid to restore the Red Rooms in the Schloss Leopoldskron - home of the Salzburg Forum.