Below is a note to staff from Washington Bureau Chief Ken Strickland.

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We’re excited to announce a new addition to our Washington bureau family:

Hans Nichols, who has been reporting from Berlin on foreign affairs and the international economy for Bloomberg, has returned to the U.S. and will be joining the NBC News team as a correspondent, beginning June 13th.

As we learned in April, the indomitable Mik will be retiring this December after more than 30 years at the Peacock. Hans’ addition to the bureau offers a valuable six months for him to contribute to the bureau’s significant role in network coverage and to work with Mik as a colleague before transitioning to the Pentagon beat upon Mik’s retirement.

Many of you are familiar with Hans and his reporting from his five-year stint as White House correspondent for Bloomberg, prior to which he covered Sen. McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Hans graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in government and received a master’s degree in political theory from the London School of Economics; he was also a Fulbright Scholar in international justice in Sierra Leone in 2005.

I look forward to introducing him to everyone in the coming weeks.

Ken