President Barack Obama is expected today to announce Jacob Lew as the new director of the Office of Management and Budget, replacing Peter Orszag who plans to join the Council on Foreign Relations.
“As the budget director who left the next administration a $237 billion surplus when he worked for President Clinton, I have no doubt that Jack has proven himself equal to this extraordinary task,†Obama said in a written statement released before his televised appearance.
Currently deputy secretary of management and resources at the Department of State, Lew served as OMB director from 1998 to 2001. Before joining OMB, he served as managing director and chief operating officer of Citi Alternative Investments. Prior to joining CAI in 2008, he was managing director and chief operating officer of Citi Global Wealth Management.
From 2001 to 2006, Lew was executive vice president and chief operating officer of New York University, where he was responsible for budget, finance, and operations. He was also a professor of public administration.
Lew served as President Bill Clinton’s budget director, and from 1998 to 2001 he led the budget team and served as a member of the National Security Council. Earlier, Lew served as OMB’s deputy director and was a member of the negotiating team that reached a bipartisan agreement to balance the budget. As special assistant to Clinton from 1993 to 1994, Lew helped design Americorps.
Prior to entering the public sector, Lew was a partner at the Washington law firm Van Ness, Feldman, specializing in issues concerning power-plant development.
Lew’s career began in 1973 as a legislative aide. He held a position as principal domestic policy adviser to House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr, and served at the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee as assistant director and then executive director.
From 2004 through 2008, Lew served on the Corporation for National and Community Service Board and chaired its Management, Administration, and Governance Committee. Before taking on his current responsibilities, he co-chaired the advisory board for City Year New York and was on the boards of the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Brookings Institution Hamilton Project and the Tobin Project.
