An e-mail response by Clinton aide Wade Boese reveals that Fernando was added to the board at Clinton’s insistence by Clinton’s then-chief of staff Cheryl Mills.
In 2011 and 2012, ABC News sought answers from Fernando himself but to no avail.
Fernando is currently a superdelegate pledged to Clinton. He is listed on the Clinton Foundation website as having given between $1 million and $5 million.
ABC News reports on Fernando’s longtime financial support to Clinton and Democrats: “He was an early supporter of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 bid for president, giving maximum contributions to her campaign, and to HillPAC, in 2007 and 2008. He also served as a fundraising bundler for Clinton, gathering more than $100,000 from others for her White House bid. After Barack Obama bested Clinton for the 2008 nomination, Fernando became a major fundraiser for the Obama campaign.
“Prior to his State Department appointment, Fernando had given between $100,000 and $250,000 to the William J. Clinton Foundation, and another $30,000 to a political advocacy group, WomenCount, that indirectly helped Hillary Clinton retire her lingering 2008 campaign debts by renting her campaign email list.”
Fernando was also reportedly one of Obama’s top 2012 financial bundlers, raising at least $500,000 for Obama’s reelection bid.
In May 2015, Clinton attended a fundraiser at Fernando’s Chicago home. Like Bill Clinton, Fernando’s father C K Fernando, was a Fulbright Scholar. C K Fernando founded an NGO that first received recognition from the Bill Clinton White House. C K Fernando served as chairman of Sri Lankan Americans for President Obama in 2009.