Wednesday, November 12, 2008 5:17 PM

Obama Team Turns To State, Defense, Treasury

The Obama transition team this afternoon sent reporters a memo with the names of those they had tapped to review three key departments -- Treasury, State and Defense. These three departments are often cited as priorities for Barack Obama and his team.

The review teams, which will get to work by the end of this week, are tasked with keeping the larger transition effort up-to-date on the goings-on within these three massive departments, and help senior appointees navigate the confirmation process and hit the ground running once they're confirmed.

WASHINGTON -- The Obama-Biden Transition Team today announced the Agency Review Team leads for the Department of Treasury, Department of State, and Department of Defense. The Obama-Biden Transition Team also announced the Agency Review Team co-chairs, who will oversee the entire review process, as well as the Agency Review Working Group, which will manage and review the Teams' work and coordinate with other transition teams, including those handling personnel, policy and the budget.

The Agency Review Teams will complete a thorough review of key departments, agencies and commissions of the United States government, as well as the White House, to provide the President-elect, Vice President-elect, and key advisors with information needed to make strategic policy, budgetary, and personnel decisions prior to the inauguration. The Teams will begin their efforts by the end of the week, and will ensure that senior appointees have the information necessary to complete the confirmation process, lead their departments, and begin implementing signature policy initiatives immediately after they are sworn in.

Complete release after the jump.

Department of the Treasury Agency Review Team Leads

Josh Gotbaum currently serves as an advisor to investment funds, with a special focus on restructurings and management turnaround. He was startup CEO of The September 11th Fund, a charity that serves people, businesses and non-profits. From 1994-2001, Josh held Senate-confirmed positions in Treasury, Defense, and OMB. From 1981-94, he was an investment banker, working on mergers and restructuring in North America and Europe. His clients included major corporations, unions, and government. He also has worked in the White House and at the Department of Energy.

Michael Warren is the Chief Operating Officer of Stonebridge International LLC. He also is on the Board of Directors of the District of Columbia Retirement Board, Catalist, the DC Minority Business Enterprise Center Advisory Board, Southeastern University's Center for Entrepreneurship, Civitas, Riptopia, and the National Child Research Center. Mr. Warren previously worked at McKinsey & Company, both as a strategic consultant in the technology and financial institutions industries and as a fellow of the McKinsey Global Institute. Mr. Warren served within the White House as Executive Director of the President's National Economic Council.

Department of State Agency Review Team Leads

Tom Donilon is a partner at the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers and serves on the firm's global governing committee. Tom served as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of State during the Clinton Administration. Since leaving the Department he has remained deeply involved in the national security arena. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Aspen Strategy Group, the National Security Advisory Group to the Congressional Leadership, the Brookings Institution Board of Trustees, the Miller Center of Public Affairs Governing Council, and the Trilateral Commission.

Wendy R. Sherman is a Principal of The Albright Group LLC and of Albright Capital Management LLC. Ambassador Sherman served as Counselor and chief troubleshooter for the State Department, as well as Special Advisor to President Clinton and Policy Coordinator on North Korea. Sherman is a recognized expert on national security issues and serves as a frequent analyst in major news outlets. She was recently appointed by Congressional Leadership to serve on the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism.

Department of Defense Agency Review Team Leads

John P. White is Robert and Renee Belfer Lecturer and Chair of the Kennedy School Middle East Initiative. He served as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1995 to 1997, Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget from 1978 to 1981, Assistant Secretary of Defense, Manpower, Reserve Affairs, and Logistics from 1977 to 1978, and as a lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps from 1959 to 1961. Prior to his most recent government service, White was the Director of the Center for Business and Government at Harvard University and the Chair of the Commission on Roles and Missions of the Armed Forces.


Michèle A. Flournoy is President and Co-Founder of the Center for a New American Security. Previously, she was a senior adviser at CSIS and a distinguished research professor at NDU. In the Clinton administration, she was dual-hatted as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and threat reduction and deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy. She is on the board of the Institute for Defense Analyses, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Aspen Strategy Group, the Executive Board of Women in International Security, and a former member of the Defense Policy Board.

Agency Review Co-Chairs

Melody Barnes is Co-chair of the Agency Review Working Group for the Obama-Biden Transition Project. She most recently served as the Senior Domestic Policy Advisor to the Obama for America campaign. Prior to joining the campaign, Ms. Barnes served as the Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress, Chief Counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee and a Principal at The Raben Group, LLC. Her experience also includes an appointment as Director of Legislative Affairs to the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Ms. Barnes began her career as an attorney with Shearman & Sterling.

Lisa Brown is Co-chair of the Agency Review Working Group for the Obama-Biden Transition Project. She is on leave from the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy where she is the Executive Director. Lisa served as Counsel to Vice President Gore, with a broad legal and policy portfolio that included serving on the Executive Board of the President's Committee for Employment of People with Disabilities. Before that, she worked in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice, was a Partner at the D.C. law firm of Shea & Gardner (now Goodwin Procter), and clerked on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals for the Honorable John C. Godbold.

Don Gips is on the Advisory Board of the Obama-Biden Transition Project and is Co-chair of the Agency Review Working Group. He is on leave from his role as Group Vice President of Global Corporate Development at Level 3 Communications, where he leads merger and acquisition efforts and is the Chief Strategy Officer. Prior to joining Level 3, Mr. Gips served in the White House as Chief Domestic Policy Advisor to Vice President Gore. Previously, Mr. Gips was Chief of the International Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission where he was responsible for the WTO negotiations and all spectrum policy. Mr. Gips also helped launch the Americorps Program at the Corporation for National Service. Before entering government, he was an Executive Manager at McKinsey & Company.

Working Group Members

Seth Harris is a member of the Obama-Biden Transition Project's Agency Review Working Group responsible for the labor, education, and transportation agencies. He is a Professor and the Director of Labor & Employment Law Programs at New York Law School. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Life Without Limits Project of the United Cerebral Palsy Association and a member of the National Advisory Commission on Workplace Flexibility. He served as the Chair of Obama for America's Labor, Employment, and Workplace Policy Committee and a Co-Chair of its Disability Policy Committee. During the Clinton Administration, he served as Counselor to the Secretary of Labor and Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for Policy, among other policy-advising positions. Before joining the administration, he was a law clerk to Judge William Canby of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Judge Gene Carter of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Review of Law & Social Change at the New York University School of Law.

David J. Hayes is a member of the Obama-Biden Transition Project's Agency Review Working Group responsible for the energy and natural resources agencies. He is former Global Chair of the Environment, Land and Resources Department at Latham & Watkins, an international law firm. He is a Senior Fellow at the World Wildlife Fund, advising the President of WWF on climate change matters, and he is a Senior Fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, specializing on energy matters. Mr. Hayes is the Vice-Chairman of the national conservation group, American Rivers, and he is the former Chairman of the Board of the Environmental Law Institute. Mr. Hayes was the Deputy Secretary of the Interior during the Clinton Administration. During the 2007-2008 academic year, Hayes was a Consulting Professor at Stanford University's Woods Institute for the Environment.

Reed Hundt, is a member of the Obama-Biden Transition Project's Agency Review Working Group responsible for the international trade and economics agencies. He is a member of various boards of directors, a part-time senior adviser to McKinsey & Company, a strategic consulting firm, and an adviser to a number of firms. He served as the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission from 1993 to 1997. Since that date, he has taught for a number of years at Yale College, Yale Law School, and the Yale School of Management, and Yale University Press has published two books written by him, You Say You Want A Revolution: A Story of Information Age Politics and In China's Shadow: The Crisis of American Entrepreneurship.

Sally Katzen is a member of the Obama-Biden Transition Project's Agency Review Working Group responsible for the Executive Office of the President and government operations agencies. She is a Lecturer at Michigan Law School and teaches American Government at the Michigan in Washington Program. She has also taught at George Mason, Pennsylvania and Georgetown law schools as well as at Smith College and Johns Hopkins University. From 1993-2001, she served as Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), then Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, and then OMB's Deputy Director for Management. She has served on National Academies of Science panels and is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Before 1993, she was a partner at then Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. She clerked for Judge J. Skelly Wright of the District of Columbia Circuit.

Tom Perez is as a member of the Obama Transition Project's Agency Review Working Group responsible for the justice, health and human services, veterans affairs, and housing and urban development agencies. He is Secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation under Governor Martin O'Malley. He worked in a variety of civil rights positions at the Department of Justice, including Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights under Attorney General Janet Reno. He also served as Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under Secretary Donna Shalala, and as Special Counsel to Senator Edward Kennedy. From 2001 until 2007, he was Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Maryland School of Law, and is an adjunct faculty member at the George Washington School of Public Health.

Sarah Sewall is a member of the Obama-Biden Transition Project's Agency Review Working Group responsible for the national security agencies. She is on part-time leave from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she teaches and is Faculty Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. Her research focuses on U.S. national security strategy, civil-military relations, counterinsurgency, terrorism and mass atrocity. Sewall served as the first U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Assistance (1993-1996). She previously served for six years as Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell.

Louisa Terrell is a Working Group member of the Obama-Biden Transition Project's Agency Review Team. Louisa is on leave from her role as Senior Director at Yahoo!'s public policy office in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining Yahoo! Louisa was Deputy Chief of Staff for Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Previously, Louisa was counsel for Senator Biden on his Senate Judiciary Committee staff where she handled criminal sentencing, juvenile justice, child protection, immigration policy and women's issues, among other areas and before that worked in the Civil Rights Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office.

Ray Rivera is a member of the Obama-Biden Transition Project's Agency Review Working Group. He was most recently State Director for the Obama-Biden Campaign in Colorado. He was also the State Director for the Colorado Caucus and served as Northeast Field Desk out of Chicago headquarters early in the campaign. Prior to the Obama Campaign, Ray was a Political Director for AFSCME, public employee's labor union and a union organizer. Ray was born in Albuquerque, NM and graduated with a BA from the University of New Mexico in 2001.

Michael Warren is a member of the Obama-Biden Transition Project's Agency Review Working Group helping to oversee the international trade and economics agencies. He is on partial leave from his role as Chief Operating Officer of Stonebridge International LLC., where he is a member of the firm's Management Committee. Prior to joining Stonebridge, Warren led corporate development at Horne Engineering Services and served as President of Appfluent Technologies. He also serves as Chairman of Ironbridge Systems. He is on the Board of Directors of the District of Columbia Retirement Board, Catalist, the DC Minority Business Enterprise Center Advisory Board, Southeastern University's Center for Entrepreneurship, Civitas, and the National Child Research Center. Warren previously worked at McKinsey & Company, both as a strategic consultant in the technology and financial institutions industries and as a fellow of the McKinsey Global Institute, advising corporate leaders in the U.S. and Asian semiconductor industries. He served within the White House as Executive Director of the President's National Economic Council.

Tom Wheeler is a member of the Obama-Biden Transition Project's Agency Review Working Group responsible for the science, technology, space and arts agencies. He has taken a leave of absence from Core Capital Partners, a venture capital firm working with early stage technology companies, where he is a Managing Director. For three decades, Wheeler has worked at the forefront of technology, both as an entrepreneur and as a policy specialist. He has been the CEO of the National Cable Television Association and the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, as well as the founder or co-founder of multiple new technology companies. Wheeler is the author of two books: Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails and Leadership Lessons from the Civil War.

Jon Wilkins is a member of the Obama-Biden Transition Project's Agency Review Working Group. He has taken a partial leave of absence from McKinsey & Company, where he is a partner in the Washington, DC office. Jon first joined McKinsey in 1996. He then worked at the Federal Communications Commission from 1998-1999 before re-joining McKinsey in 1999. He was Managing Editor of the Yale Law Journal.