Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
November 13, 2008
Pg. 21
By Anne E. Kornblut and Michael Abramowitz, Washington Post Staff Writers
The Obama transition team yesterday rolled out a new list of officials who will help guide the process, singling out the Treasury, Defense and State departments as its first three areas of focus.
The transition team also set in motion a plan to review the policies and budgets at federal agencies and prepared to hire new personnel.
Three policy-oriented Democrats -- Melody Barnes, Lisa Brown and Don Gips -- will serve as co-chairs of the agency review process, the office of President-elect Barack Obama said. They will consult with an 11-member agency review working group, also announced yesterday. "Team leads" were announced at the first three agencies, a sign of how central they will be as Obama assumes the presidency in the midst of two wars and an economic crisis.
At the helm of the Treasury Department transition team are Josh Gotbaum, an adviser to investment funds who held various Senate-confirmed positions during the Clinton administration, and Michael Warren, chief operating officer of Stonebridge International LLC.
Heading the State team are two veterans of the Democratic foreign policy establishment, both intimately familiar with the people and machinery at Foggy Bottom. Both Thomas E. Donilon, a partner at O'Melveny & Myers, and Wendy R. Sherman, a business partner of former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, had senior positions in the Clinton-era State Department.
Donilon served as chief of staff to Clinton's first secretary of state, Warren Christopher, and as assistant secretary for public affairs. He has been close to Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. for years and has been a player in national Democratic politics at the presidential level. He led the Obama campaign's preparations for the three debates with John McCain this fall, a role Donilon also played in the 1992 Clinton campaign.
Sherman was one of Albright's closest assistants during Albright's tenure as Clinton's second secretary of state, serving as department counselor, a wide-ranging troubleshooting role that included a key role in diplomacy aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program. She also served a stint as the assistant secretary in charge of congressional relations.
Leading the Defense Department review are Michèle A. Flournoy, president of the Center for a New American Security, and John P. White, chair of the John F. Kennedy School of Government's Middle East Initiative at Harvard University.
Flournoy served in the Pentagon during the Clinton administration as deputy assistant secretary for strategy and threat reduction. Afterward, she was a distinguished research professor at the National Defense University, where she founded and led a working group to develop insights for the Pentagon's 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review.
She was a co-founder of the Center for a New American Security, which quickly emerged as an influential voice in military and defense circles, attracting several leading military thinkers and hosting high-profile speakers. "She's as good and bipartisan and reasonable a choice as you can make, very insightful, smart and balanced, and particularly good with uniformed people," said a senior defense official.
Flournoy was recently invited to Iraq along with other experts to advise top U.S. commander Gen. Ray Odierno on military, economic and political priorities for the war.
The naming of White, the other leader of the Pentagon transition team, was not as widely expected at the Pentagon, according to senior officials. In the Clinton administration, he was deputy secretary of defense from 1995 to 1997. He also served from 1978 to 1981 as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, and as the Pentagon's deputy assistant secretary of manpower and reserve affairs under President Jimmy Carter.
Staff writer Ann Scott Tyson contributed to this report.
The Names
Agency review personnel named yesterday by the Obama transition team:
Co-chairs
Melody Barnes: Former executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress and chief counsel to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Lisa Brown: On leave from her post as executive director of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy. Counsel to Vice President Al Gore.
Don Gips: On leave from his position as group vice president of Corporate Strategy and Development at Level 3 Communications. Chief domestic policy adviser to Gore.
Working group members and their transition roles
Seth Harris: Labor, education and transportation agencies. Professor and director of labor and employment law programs at New York Law School. Former counselor to Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman.
David J. Hayes: Energy and natural resources agencies. Former global chair of the Environment, Land and Resources Department at the law firm Latham & Watkins.
Reed Hundt: International trade and economics agencies. Part-time senior adviser to McKinsey & Co., a strategic consulting firm, and an adviser to a number of firms. Former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
Sally Katzen: Executive Office of the President and government operations agencies. Lecturer at the University of Michigan Law School. Clinton administration Office of Management and Budget official.
Thomas E. Perez: Justice, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, and Housing and Urban Development. Secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. Deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights under Attorney General Janet Reno.
Sarah Sewall: National security agencies. On part-time leave from the Kennedy School of Government, where she teaches and is faculty director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. Served as the first deputy assistant secretary of defense for peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance.
Louisa Terrell: On leave from her role as senior director at Yahoo's public policy office in Washington. Former deputy chief of staff for Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Ray Rivera: Former Colorado director for the Obama-Biden campaign and former political director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Michael Warren: International trade and economics agencies. On partial leave from his role as chief operating officer of Stonebridge International.
Tom Wheeler: Science, technology, space and arts agencies. On leave from Core Capital Partners, a venture capital firm that works with early-stage technology companies, where he is a managing director.
Jon Wilkins: On partial leave from McKinsey & Co., where he is a partner in the Washington office. He worked at the FCC from 1998 to 1999.
Review team leaders
Treasury Department
Josh Gotbaum: An adviser to investment funds, with a special focus on restructurings and management turnaround. Official at Treasury, Defense and OMB from 1994 to 2001.
Michael Warren (See above.)
State Department
Thomas E. Donilon: Partner at the law firm O'Melveny & Myers. Assistant secretary of state for public affairs and chief of staff at the State Department during the Clinton administration.
Wendy R. Sherman: Principal of Albright Group and Albright Capital Management. Counselor and chief troubleshooter for the State Department during the Clinton administration.
Defense Department
John P. White: Chair of the Kennedy School of Government's Middle East Initiative. Deputy secretary of defense from 1995 to 1997.
Michèle A. Flournoy: President and co-founder of the Center for a New American Security. Principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and threat reduction and deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy during the Clinton administration.
November 13, 2008
Pg. 21
By Anne E. Kornblut and Michael Abramowitz, Washington Post Staff Writers
The Obama transition team yesterday rolled out a new list of officials who will help guide the process, singling out the Treasury, Defense and State departments as its first three areas of focus.
The transition team also set in motion a plan to review the policies and budgets at federal agencies and prepared to hire new personnel.
Three policy-oriented Democrats -- Melody Barnes, Lisa Brown and Don Gips -- will serve as co-chairs of the agency review process, the office of President-elect Barack Obama said. They will consult with an 11-member agency review working group, also announced yesterday. "Team leads" were announced at the first three agencies, a sign of how central they will be as Obama assumes the presidency in the midst of two wars and an economic crisis.
At the helm of the Treasury Department transition team are Josh Gotbaum, an adviser to investment funds who held various Senate-confirmed positions during the Clinton administration, and Michael Warren, chief operating officer of Stonebridge International LLC.
Heading the State team are two veterans of the Democratic foreign policy establishment, both intimately familiar with the people and machinery at Foggy Bottom. Both Thomas E. Donilon, a partner at O'Melveny & Myers, and Wendy R. Sherman, a business partner of former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, had senior positions in the Clinton-era State Department.
Donilon served as chief of staff to Clinton's first secretary of state, Warren Christopher, and as assistant secretary for public affairs. He has been close to Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. for years and has been a player in national Democratic politics at the presidential level. He led the Obama campaign's preparations for the three debates with John McCain this fall, a role Donilon also played in the 1992 Clinton campaign.
Sherman was one of Albright's closest assistants during Albright's tenure as Clinton's second secretary of state, serving as department counselor, a wide-ranging troubleshooting role that included a key role in diplomacy aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program. She also served a stint as the assistant secretary in charge of congressional relations.
Leading the Defense Department review are Michèle A. Flournoy, president of the Center for a New American Security, and John P. White, chair of the John F. Kennedy School of Government's Middle East Initiative at Harvard University.
Flournoy served in the Pentagon during the Clinton administration as deputy assistant secretary for strategy and threat reduction. Afterward, she was a distinguished research professor at the National Defense University, where she founded and led a working group to develop insights for the Pentagon's 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review.
She was a co-founder of the Center for a New American Security, which quickly emerged as an influential voice in military and defense circles, attracting several leading military thinkers and hosting high-profile speakers. "She's as good and bipartisan and reasonable a choice as you can make, very insightful, smart and balanced, and particularly good with uniformed people," said a senior defense official.
Flournoy was recently invited to Iraq along with other experts to advise top U.S. commander Gen. Ray Odierno on military, economic and political priorities for the war.
The naming of White, the other leader of the Pentagon transition team, was not as widely expected at the Pentagon, according to senior officials. In the Clinton administration, he was deputy secretary of defense from 1995 to 1997. He also served from 1978 to 1981 as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, and as the Pentagon's deputy assistant secretary of manpower and reserve affairs under President Jimmy Carter.
Staff writer Ann Scott Tyson contributed to this report.
The Names
Agency review personnel named yesterday by the Obama transition team:
Co-chairs
Melody Barnes: Former executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress and chief counsel to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Lisa Brown: On leave from her post as executive director of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy. Counsel to Vice President Al Gore.
Don Gips: On leave from his position as group vice president of Corporate Strategy and Development at Level 3 Communications. Chief domestic policy adviser to Gore.
Working group members and their transition roles
Seth Harris: Labor, education and transportation agencies. Professor and director of labor and employment law programs at New York Law School. Former counselor to Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman.
David J. Hayes: Energy and natural resources agencies. Former global chair of the Environment, Land and Resources Department at the law firm Latham & Watkins.
Reed Hundt: International trade and economics agencies. Part-time senior adviser to McKinsey & Co., a strategic consulting firm, and an adviser to a number of firms. Former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
Sally Katzen: Executive Office of the President and government operations agencies. Lecturer at the University of Michigan Law School. Clinton administration Office of Management and Budget official.
Thomas E. Perez: Justice, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, and Housing and Urban Development. Secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. Deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights under Attorney General Janet Reno.
Sarah Sewall: National security agencies. On part-time leave from the Kennedy School of Government, where she teaches and is faculty director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. Served as the first deputy assistant secretary of defense for peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance.
Louisa Terrell: On leave from her role as senior director at Yahoo's public policy office in Washington. Former deputy chief of staff for Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Ray Rivera: Former Colorado director for the Obama-Biden campaign and former political director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Michael Warren: International trade and economics agencies. On partial leave from his role as chief operating officer of Stonebridge International.
Tom Wheeler: Science, technology, space and arts agencies. On leave from Core Capital Partners, a venture capital firm that works with early-stage technology companies, where he is a managing director.
Jon Wilkins: On partial leave from McKinsey & Co., where he is a partner in the Washington office. He worked at the FCC from 1998 to 1999.
Review team leaders
Treasury Department
Josh Gotbaum: An adviser to investment funds, with a special focus on restructurings and management turnaround. Official at Treasury, Defense and OMB from 1994 to 2001.
Michael Warren (See above.)
State Department
Thomas E. Donilon: Partner at the law firm O'Melveny & Myers. Assistant secretary of state for public affairs and chief of staff at the State Department during the Clinton administration.
Wendy R. Sherman: Principal of Albright Group and Albright Capital Management. Counselor and chief troubleshooter for the State Department during the Clinton administration.
Defense Department
John P. White: Chair of the Kennedy School of Government's Middle East Initiative. Deputy secretary of defense from 1995 to 1997.
Michèle A. Flournoy: President and co-founder of the Center for a New American Security. Principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and threat reduction and deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy during the Clinton administration.