The vast majority of us have never heard of Brett Giroir, but he’s been chosen by President Donald Trump to oversee federal efforts for increasing the testing capacity for COVID-19 across the nation.

Oh, and in his previous position, a performance review Giroir received led to him being given an ultimatum: Resign or be fired.

According to The Washington Post:

“After eight years of work on several vaccine projects, Giroir was told in 2015 he had 30 minutes to resign or he would be fired. His annual performance evaluation at Texas A&M, the local newspaper reported, said he was ‘more interested in promoting yourself’ than the health science center where he worked. He got low marks on being a ‘team player.'”

In other words, Giroir, like so many Trump appointees, is far from the standard of the “very best people” that the president promised he would seek out and put in key positions when he ran for office in 2016.

While at Texas A&M, Giroir worked on vaccine development projects, and his former colleagues say the new “testing czar” has a history of being defensive and combative:

“Robin Robinson, who as the director of the federal Biological Advanced Research and Development Authority oversaw a major grant for the Texas vaccine project, said in an interview that Giroir ‘over-promised and under-delivered.’ He said, ‘I always had a good relationship with Brett. I know he has a temper and he sometimes has a very difficult time controlling it.'”

A temper and difficulty controlling it? That sounds vaguely familiar, doesn’t it? Actually, it sounds just like the current president.

Giroir, a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, began his medical career as a pediatrician and later joined the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). He later went to Texas A&M and became vice chancellor at the university where he led efforts to develop new vaccines in conjunction with pharmaceutical companies.

Now Dr. Giroir will be tasked with making sure that mass testing efforts to determine who has COVID-19 are carried out so the results can be used to determine what cities and states can safely reopen and resume business operations.

For his part, Giror is less than forthcoming when asked about what happened during his tenure at A&M, remarking:

“I have a loyalty to my faculty and my students. And that’s what I care about. . . . It’s better to be independent and stand your ethical ground. I’ll just leave it at that.”

Featured Image Via NBC News