Marco Camacho, the former 1st Ward Newport City Councilman, has been appointed by the Newport City Council in a 4-2 vote to serve out the remainder of Councilman John Florez’s At-Large term. Councilman Florez resigned in December to pursue further business opportunities for Drupal Connect, his award winning technology firm.
Voting in the affirmative were Mayor Winthrop, Councilor Ceglie, Councilor Napolitano and Councilor Leonard. Councilors Bova and Taylor voted in the negative, instead voting for Roland Chase.
Marco has been a resident of First Ward since immigrating with his parents to Newport from Madeira, Portugal in 1979. A member of Jesus Savior Church, Marco served as a parish altar boy and attended the former Jesus Savior School from Kindergarten through fifth grade. He received his public education through Thompson Middle School, and is a graduate of Rogers High School, Class of 1995.
Marco graduated from Providence College in 1999 and received his commission as a U.S. Army Officer through the ROTC program. An Infantryman and Airborne Ranger, Marco ultimately achieved the rank of Captain. He first volunteered to serve as a Rifle Platoon Leader for 1st Battalion 503rd Infantry Regiment, on the border of the North and South Korean DMZ. Following the September 11th attacks, he again stepped up and served with the Army’s 10th Mountain Division as Commander of Rear Detachment Forces, for Task Force 1-87’s invasion of Afghanistan.
Following his active duty military service, Marco began a career in New York Real Estate Finance. First, as an Account Executive with Accredited Home Lenders (Wall Street’s top performing IPO of 2003) and later with Allied Capital, and Credit Suisse, where he served as an Assistant Vice President in the Fixed Income Division.
Marco is Managing Director and equity partner for New England Sports Marketing Group,LLC, a sports entertainment venture.
Marco served two terms on the Newport City Council narrowly loosing a third term to Susan Taylor in 2016 by 126 votes