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President Clinton has nominated local businessman Sim Farar as U.S. representative to the 54th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, officials announced Thursday.

If his nomination is approved by the Senate, Farar would replace Regina Montoya of Dallas, who was the former head of the White House Office for Intergovernmental Affairs and the

highest-ranking Latina in the Clinton administration, officials said.

In his new post, Farar would be responsible for delivering U.S. policy on the floor of the General Assembly at the United Nations headquarters in New York, officials said. He is expected to

take his seat later this month and serve through the end of Clinton’s term in office.

“I am looking forward to working with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke,” Farar said in a prepared statement. “Being part of the international arena at the beginning of this new millennium is

very exhilarating.”

Farar, 53, serves on the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts to the John F. Kennedy Center, a position he has held since 1994, officials said. He has also worked on the state Senate’s

Advisory Committee on Business Insurance and the state Senate’s Small Business Advisory Board Commission.

Farar hosted a private luncheon to raise funds for the Democratic Party in his Calabasas home in June 1998. Vice President Al Gore, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, then-gubernatorial nominee Gray

Davis, actress Sally Field and Tina Sinatra were among the invited guests.

In the private sector, Farar is president and serves on the board of directors of IFC Financial Services Corp., a financial services consulting firm, and has served as president of JDF

Investments, a corporate development firm.

Farar and his wife, Debra, an educational consultant, have been married for 26 years and are the parents of two adult sons.