Washington, DC…Today, President-elect Joe Biden announced key members of his economic team, including Janet Yellen, Secretary of the Treasury; Neera Tanden, Director of the Office of Management and Budget; Wally Adeyemo, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury; Cecilia Rouse, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers; and Jared Bernstein and Heather Boushey, members of the Council of Economic Advisers.
This crisis-tested team will help President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris lift America out of the current economic downturn and build back better — creating an economy that gives every single person across America a fair shot and an equal chance to get ahead. These choices reflect the president-elect’s commitment to building an administration that looks like America, drawing on the diverse backgrounds and lived experiences of some of our nation’s foremost economic experts.
President-elect Joe Biden said, “As we get to work to control the virus, this is the team that will deliver immediate economic relief for the American people during this economic crisis and help us build our economy back better than ever. This team is comprised of respected and tested groundbreaking public servants who will help the communities hardest hit by COVID-19 and address the structural inequities in our economy. They will work tirelessly to ensure every American enjoys a fair return for their work and an equal chance to get ahead, and that our businesses can thrive and outcompete the rest of the world. This team looks like America and brings seriousness of purpose, the highest degree of competency, and unwavering belief in the promise of America. They will be ready on day one to get to work for all Americans.”
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris said, “President-elect Biden and I have said that our top priorities upon entering the White House are getting this virus under control and opening our economy responsibly. The outstanding economic team that President-elect Biden is bringing together will help us deliver on our commitment. They are not only some of America’s most brilliant economic minds, they are also proven leaders who reflect the very best of our country. And they share a fundamental commitment to ending this economic crisis and putting people back to work, while rebuilding our economy in a way that lifts up all Americans. With the selection of these crisis-tested public servants, the American people are getting the economic team they need — and deserve.”
This distinguished slate of nominations and appointments includes several historic trailblazers:
Janet Yellen is nominated to serve as Secretary of the Treasury. If confirmed, she will be the first woman to lead the Treasury Department in its 231-year history, and the first person to have served as Treasury Secretary, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, and Chair of the Federal Reserve. She has previously been confirmed by the Senate on four separate occasions.
Neera Tanden, whose career has focused on pursuing policies designed to support working families, foster broad-based economic growth, and curb rampant inequality, is nominated to serve as Director of the Office of Management and Budget. If confirmed, Tanden would be the first woman of color and first South Asian American to lead the OMB.
Wally Adeyemo, a veteran of the Executive Branch and expert on macro-economic policy and consumer protection with deep national security experience, is nominated to serve as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, having previously served as Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, Deputy National Security Advisor, and the first Chief of Staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If confirmed, Adeyemo would be the first African American Deputy Secretary of the Treasury.
Cecilia Rouse, a leading labor economist and the Dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, is nominated to serve as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, having previously been confirmed by the Senate as a member of the CEA in 2009. If confirmed, she will become the first African American and just the fourth woman to lead the CEA in the 74 years of its existence.
Jared Bernstein, who previously served as Chief Economist to President-elect Biden in the first years of the Obama-Biden Administration, will serve as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers.
Heather Boushey, a distinguished economist focused on economic inequality and the President, CEO, and co-founder of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, will serve as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers.
The following White House announcements were made today:
Janet Yellen, Secretary of the Treasury
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Janet Yellen served as the 15th Chair of the Federal Reserve, the first woman to lead America’s central banking system since its creation. Among the most accomplished and decorated economists in modern history, if confirmed, she will become the first woman to lead the Treasury Department in its 231 years of existence, and the first person to ever serve as Treasury Secretary, Chair of the Federal Reserve, and Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.
Prior to her leadership of the Federal Reserve, Yellen served as the body’s Vice Chair from 2010 to 2014 following an earlier term on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and as President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She served as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton, has held a litany of high-profile leadership roles with national and international economics organizations, and has forged a prolific career as a professor of economics, including as a faculty member at the University of California at Berkeley for the last 40 years. Born and raised in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Yellen received her bachelor of arts degree from Brown University and her Ph.D. in economics from Yale University.
Neera Tanden, Director of the Office of Management and Budget
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Neera Tanden currently serves as President & CEO of the Center for American Progress, an organization dedicated to advancing policies that increase opportunity for every American. A veteran of multiple presidential administrations, Tanden has been a leading architect and advocate of policies designed to support working families, foster broad-based economic growth, and curb inequality throughout her career. Her experience as a child relying on food stamps and Section 8 housing — a social safety net that offered her single mother the foundation she needed to land a good job and punch her family’s ticket to the middle class — instilled in her the true necessity of an economy that serves the dignity and humanity of all people. If confirmed, Tanden would be the first woman of color and the first South Asian American to lead the OMB.
Prior to her tenure as President & CEO, Tanden held the post of Chief Operating Officer at the Center for American Progress. She currently serves on the New Jersey Restart and Recovery Commission, and previously served as senior adviser for health reform at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services developing policies and provisions of the Affordable Care Act, as director of domestic policy for the first Obama-Biden presidential campaign, and in a variety of other roles in government and on the campaign trail. A native of Bedford, Massachusetts, Tanden received her bachelor of science degree from UCLA and her JD from Yale Law School.
Wally Adeyemo, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury
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Wally Adeyemo currently serves as the president of the Obama Foundation, the non-profit organization founded by former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama to continue their work in service to their community, our nation, and the world. A leader with deep experience across both the economic and national security space, Adeyemo has served as a trusted adviser to the country’s foremost policymakers in times of crisis.
During the Obama-Biden Administration, Adeyemo served as the President’s senior international economic adviser and held a broad range of posts, including Deputy National Security Advisor, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, the first chief of staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and senior advisor and deputy chief of staff at the Department of the Treasury. Before and after his service in the Obama-Biden Administration, he has advised a range of leading non-profit and private sector organizations, including the Center for Strategic & International Studies. Born in Nigeria and raised in southern California’s Inland Empire, Adeyemo received his bachelor of arts degree from the University of California at Berkeley and his JD from Yale Law School. If confirmed, Adeyemo would be the first African American Deputy Secretary of the Treasury.
Cecilia Rouse, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers
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Cecilia Rouse currently serves as Dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. If confirmed, she will become just the first African American and just the fourth woman to lead the CEA in the 74 years of its existence. A renowned labor economist with expertise centered in the economics of education and equality, she is an accomplished leader who has held prominent roles across academia and government service.
Before taking on her current role as Dean in 2012, Rouse served as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama-Biden Administration and on the National Economic Council in the Clinton Administration as Special Assistant to President Clinton. Rouse joined the Princeton faculty in 1992 and has authored landmark papers on a variety of economic policy issues. Originally from California, Rouse received her bachelor of arts degree and her Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.
Jared Bernstein, Member of the Council of Economic Advisers
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Jared Bernstein served as chief economist to then-Vice President Biden in the Obama-Biden Administration before joining the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, where he has served as a senior fellow since 2011. A former social worker, Bernstein has a long and distinguished track record devising economic policies that expand opportunity for working Americans.
Bernstein has previously served as Executive Director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class and as an economic advisor to President Obama; prior to his service in the Obama-Biden Administration, he was a senior economist and director of the Living Standards Program at the Economic Policy Institute, and served as Deputy Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor under President Clinton. In addition to authoring numerous books, Bernstein has been a regular commentator on economic issues for leading national print and television outlets, including The Washington Post and CNBC. Bernstein received his bachelor’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music, his master of social work degree from Hunter College, and his Ph.D. in social welfare from Columbia University.
Heather Boushey, Member of the Council of Economic Advisers
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Heather Boushey is a long-time economic counselor to President-elect Biden and currently serves as President & CEO of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a non-profit research and grantmaking organization she co-founded in 2013. An expert on the impact of structural inequities on economic growth, she is a leading voice on matters of economic policy.
Boushey served as chief economist for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential transition team, and previously served as an economist for the Center for American Progress, the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and the Economic Policy Institute. She currently sits on the board of the Opportunity Institute, is a senior fellow at the Schwartz Center for Economic and Policy Analysis at the New School for Social Research, and serves as an Associate Editor for Feminist Economics. Born and raised in the Seattle area, Boushey received her bachelor of arts degree from Hampshire College and her Ph.D. in economics from the New School for Social Research.
