Jeffrey Zients

Jeff Zients


10th Director of the National Economic Council
Incumbent
Assumed office March 5, 2014
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Gene Sperling
Director of the Office of Management and Budget Acting
In office January 27, 2012 – April 24, 2013
President	Barack Obama
Deputy	Heather Higginbottom
Preceded by	Jack Lew
Succeeded by	Sylvia Mathews Burwell
In office July 30, 2010 – November 18, 2010
President	Barack Obama
Deputy	Jeffrey Liebman (Acting)
Preceded by	Peter Orszag
Succeeded by	Jack Lew
1st Chief Performance Officer of the United States
In office June 19, 2009 – October 16, 2013
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Beth Cobert
Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget for Management
In office June 19, 2009 – October 16, 2013
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Clay Johnson
Succeeded by	Beth Cobert
Personal details
Born	(1966-11-12) November 12, 1966 Kensington, Maryland, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Mary Menell
Children	Sasha Matt Josh Jonny
Alma mater	Duke University
Religion	Judaism

Jeffrey "Jeff" D. Zients (born November 12, 1966) is an American chief executive officer, management consultant and entrepreneur. Since late February 2014, he has served as Director of the United States National Economic Council and President Obama's Economic Advisor. Zients has served as the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, a position he held until April 24, 2013. On September 13, 2013, it was announced that Zients would replace Gene Sperling as Director of the National Economic Council.^[1]

Zients' assumption of the role of Director of the National Economic Council was delayed by his acceptance of an assignment from President Barack Obama to fix the problems of HealthCare.gov. Zients is widely credited with salvaging HealthCare.gov, and has come to be referred to as "Mr. Fix-It" within the Obama Administration.^[2]^[3]

Early years

Zients was raised in a Jewish family^[4] and is a native of Kensington, Maryland,^[5] and lives in the Washington, D.C. area.^[6] He graduated in 1984 from St. Albans School and earned a Bachelor of Science degree, summa cum laude^[7] from Duke University. Zients worked in management consulting for Mercer Management Consulting and Bain & Company until his appointment as chief operating officer of DGB Enterprises, a holding company for the Advisory Board Company, Corporate Executive Board and Atlantic Media Company.^[7]

Zients was the chairman (2001–2004), chief executive officer (1998–2000), and chief operating officer (1996–1998) of the Advisory Board Company and former chairman (2000–2001) of the Corporate Executive Board.^[8] Both companies were founded by David G. Bradley and provide research and advice to corporations around the globe on best practices in management, strategy and operations. Zients and Bradley took each of the companies public through successful initial public offerings that made both men multimillionaires.^[6]^[9] At age 35, Zients was named to Fortune Magazine's "40 under 40" with an estimated wealth of $149 million.^[10]

Zients also cofounded the Urban Alliance Foundation.

Zients founded^[11] and was the managing partner of privately held Portfolio Logic LLC, an investment firm primarily focused on business services companies,^[12] that included Best Practices (Emergency Services management), Timbuk2 Designs (a retailer of backpacks, apparel and messenger bags) and Pediatrics Services of America. He was a member of the board of directors of XM Satellite Radio until its 2008 merger, and^[8]^[13] a board member at Sirius XM Radio until his Senate confirmation.^[14]^[15] Zients had also served on the boards of Revolution Health Group, Best Practices and Timbuk2 Designs.^[9]^[11]^[13]^[16]

Baseball

In 2005, he worked to bring Major League Baseball back to Washington with venture capitalist Fred Malek forming the Washington Baseball Club, one of eight^[17] or nine groups vying to buy the Washington Nationals.^[18] The club included Colin Powell, AOL founding CEO James Kinsey, attorney Vernon Jordan, Darrell Green formerly of the Washington Redskins, Fannie Mae chairman Franklin Raines^[5]^[18] and others.^[5] Malek was going to be the managing partner for the first three years when Zients would take over.^[17] They came close to owning the team^[17] but lost to another group led by the Lerner family.^[8]

Office of Management and Budget

Jeffrey Zients speaking at White House press briefing on a possible government shutdown (2011)

In 2009, President Barack Obama appointed him to the new position of United States Chief Performance Officer and Deputy Director for Management of the Office of Management and Budget in the federal government of the United States.^[19] According to Obama, his assignment was to help “streamline processes, cut costs, and find best practices throughout" the U.S. government.^[19] Zients replaced Nancy Killefer who withdrew from her nomination to this position in February 2009 to avoid controversy about her personal income taxes.^[20] His nomination was approved by the full Senate after a hearing on June 10, 2009, by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee who voted unanimously to approve him.^[21]^[22]

As the Chief Performance Officer, Zients led the Obama Administration's "Accountable Government Initiative". Zients outlined the Initiative in a memo to the government's Senior Executive Service in the fall of 2010.^[23] One primary area of focus was to reform how the government buys and manages information technology. To bring outside expertise into government, Zients organized a Forum on Modernizing Government at the White House in January 2010 that brought 50 private sector CEOs together with senior government managers and CIOs to discuss best practices in large-scale IT project management.^[24] This session informed subsequent actions, including ordering a halt on all major government financial system projects until a review was completed to eliminate long-standing problems, reduce costs and accelerate the delivery of functionality to end users.^[25] In November 2010, Zients announced an execution plan for overcoming the long-standing structural challenges that plague government IT.^[26]

In his role as DDM, Zients established and chaired the President’s Management Council ^[27] and oversaw the "Management" side of the Office of Management and Budget.

Zients served as the Acting Director of OMB from July 2010 to November 2010 and again from January 2012 to April 2013. He led the Administration's preparations for dealing with the "fiscal cliff" in 2012, and "oversaw the administration's budget content and message, which are central to the president's argument that he has a balanced plan for the economy while Republicans would rip the country's social fabric and undermine the education and infrastructure needed to succeed economically....[Zients] is Obama's ambassador liaison with the CEOs on the President's Jobs Council. One CEO thought he was a Republican. Others have said they want him to run their companies one day."^[14]

Healthcare.gov

Following the error-plagued launch of healthcare.gov on October 1, 2013, Zients was recruited by President Obama and his Chief of Staff Denis McDonough to lead a "tech surge" to fix the website. McDonough referred to Zients as a “force multiplier” who [delivers] what he promises. He said the president had given Mr. Zients the same instructions he had given White House staff: “Get this fixed.”^[28]

On October 25, Zients promised, in a conference call to the media, that the site would be working well "for the vast majority of users" by the end of November.

Zients worked with Silicon Valley experts, and Obama Chief Technology Officer Todd Park to create an ad hoc technology "dream team" of trouble-shooters and coders. Zients overhauled the project's management structure by insisting that one contractor by appointed the "general contractor" or systems integrator with clear accountability for managing the needed fixes. HHS appointed Quality Software Services, Inc (QSSI) to that role. Zients accelerated the pace of the website fixes, established clear metrics for tracking website performance (which he reported out publicly on weekly press calls), prioritized a "punch list" of bugs and enhancements, and instituted morning and evening “stand up meetings" to work through emerging issues in real-time.^[29]

On December 1, 2013, HHS released a report on the site's performance improvements, and held a press call to announce that the team had met Zients' goal, with Zients reporting: "The bottom line is that HealthCare.gov is night and day from where it was on Oct. 1."

During the press call, Zients listed some of the root causes of the site’s earlier failure, such as the "unacceptable user experience, very slow response time, inexplicable user error messages and frequent website crashes and system outages." Root causes of the problems, he said, included hundreds of software bugs, inadequate hardware infrastructure and a general lack of system monitoring. Zients identified weaknesses in how the site was being managed, and he also cited slow decision-making among the root causes of the site’s troubles. “HealthCare.gov was fixable," Zients said. "We needed to get the team working with the speed and urgency of a high-performing private sector tech company."^[30]

Personal life

While working at Bain, Zients reported to South African Mary Menell; they later were married in South Africa with Menell’s parents’ family friend Nelson Mandela in attendance.^[31] They have four children Sasha, Matt, Josh and Jonny.^[32]

References

↑ "Obama Picks Zients as Director of Economic Council". Bloomberg. Retrieved September 14, 2013.
↑ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/25/obama-appoints-jeffrey-zients-healthcare
↑ Eilperin, Juliette (December 22, 2013). "Jeff Zients helped salvage HealthCare.gov. Now he’ll be Obama’s go-to guy on economy.". Washington Post (Washington Post). Retrieved 05/04/2014. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
↑ The Jewish Daily Forward: "Meet the Four Jews Shaping the U.S. Economy" By Nathan Guttman February 28, 2013
1 2 3 Shin, Annys (October 4, 2004). "Zients Is at the Top of His Game". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-04-19.
1 2 O'Keefe, Ed. "Who Are Jeffrey Zients and Aneesh Chopra?". The Washington Post (Tribune Company). Retrieved 2009-04-19.
1 2 "Advisory Board Co. 10-K". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. June 27, 2003. Retrieved 2009-04-29.
1 2 3 "Obama names Chopra, Zients to top posts". Washington Business Journal (Advance Publications). April 17, 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-19.
1 2 O'Hara, Terence (August 31, 2007). "There's More Than Baseball in Jeffrey Zients's Days". The Washington Post (Tribune Company). Retrieved 2009-04-19.
↑ Boorstin, Julia; Freedman, Jonah; Florian, Ellen; Krady, Scott; Levinstein, Joan; Miller, Matthew; Vazquez, Dana (June 2002). "America's 40 Richest Under 40". CNN. Retrieved 2010-11-11.
1 2 Nichols, Hans (April 20, 2009). "Obama Names Performance Officer, Vows to Trim Federal Spending". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2009-04-19.
↑ "Portfolio Logic Management LLC". BusinessWeek. Retrieved 2009-94-19. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
1 2 "Jeffrey D. Zients". Condé Nast Portfolio. Archived from the original on April 21, 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-19.
1 2 Langley, Monica (July 13, 2012). "The Businessman Behind the Obama Budget" Wall Street Journal.
↑ "Zients Resigns from Sirius XM Board". Radio Ink (MediaSpan). June 23, 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-30.
↑ "Jeffrey D. Zients Profile". Forbes. Retrieved 2009-04-19.
1 2 3 Heath, Thomas (April 29, 2009). "Malek, Zients Are Big Hitters in an All-Star Ownership Lineup". The Washington Post (Tribune Company). Retrieved 2009-04-29.
1 2 "Powell Joins Group Bidding On D.C. Baseball Team". Jet 107 (24) (Johnson Publishing). June 13, 2005. p. 50. Retrieved 2009-04-19.
1 2 Obama, Barack (April 18, 2009). "(Transcript) Weekly Address: Efficiency and Innovation". The White House (whitehouse.gov). Archived from the original on April 18, 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-19.
↑ Lunney, Kellie (April 20, 2009). "Obama Names Zients As CPO". National Journal Group. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
↑ Brodsky, Robert (June 22, 2009). "Zients confirmed as OMB's deputy director of management". GovExec.com (National Journal Group). Retrieved 2009-06-22.
↑ Meckler, Laura (April 20, 2009). "Administration Seeks to Target Wasteful Spending". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2009-04-19.
↑ "Presidential Memorandum-Accountable Government Initiative | The White House". Whitehouse.gov. 2010-09-14. Retrieved 2013-01-14.
↑ "President Obama Welcomes CEOs to White House Forum on Modernizing Government | The White House". Whitehouse.gov. 2010-01-14. Retrieved 2013-01-14.
↑ http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-28/obama-puts-3-billion-in-technology-deals-on-hold.html
↑ Lipowicz, Alice (2010-11-19). "Zients outlines five strategies for improving IT management". FCW. Retrieved 2013-01-14.
↑ KATHERINE REYNOLDS LEWIS, The Fiscal Times (2010-06-14). "OMB’s Zients Cuts Through the Red Tape". Thefiscaltimes.com. Retrieved 2013-01-14.
↑ "Health Website Tests a Tycoon and Tinkerer". The New York Times. November 10, 2013.
↑ Brill, Steven (February 27, 2014). "Obama's Trauma Team". Time.
↑ http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/healthcaregov-night-day
↑ Conservative Daily News: "Obama’s OMB Director Came From Bain Capital By Warren Beatty July 17, 2012
↑ "Play Ball! Washington Baseball Club Celebrates Return of Baseball to Our Hometown" (Press release). Washington Baseball Club via Zoom Information. September 29, 2004. Retrieved 2009-04-29.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jeffrey Zients.

Appearances on C-SPAN

Political offices
Preceded by Peter Orszag	Director of the Office of Management and Budget Acting 2010	Succeeded by Jack Lew
Preceded by Jack Lew	Director of the Office of Management and Budget Acting 2012–2013	Succeeded by Sylvia Mathews Burwell
Preceded by Gene Sperling	Director of the National Economic Council 2014–present	Incumbent

Obama Administration personnel

Cabinet and cabinet-level

Office	Name	Term	Office	Name	Term
Secretary of State	John Kerry	2013–	Secretary of Treasury	Jack Lew	2013–
Secretary of Defense	Ashton Carter	2015–	Attorney General	Loretta Lynch	2015–
Secretary of the Interior	Sally Jewell	2013–	Secretary of Agriculture	Tom Vilsack	2009–
Secretary of Commerce	Penny Pritzker	2013–	Secretary of Labor	Thomas Perez	2013–
Secretary of Health and Human Services	Sylvia Mathews Burwell	2014–	Secretary of Education Secretary of Transportation	Arne Duncan Anthony Foxx	2009– 2013–
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development	Julian Castro	2014–	Secretary of Veterans Affairs	Robert A. McDonald	2014–
Secretary of Energy	Ernest Moniz	2013–	Secretary of Homeland Security	Jeh Johnson	2013–

Vice President	Joe Biden	2009–	White House Chief of Staff	Denis McDonough	2013–
Director of the Office of Management and Budget	Shaun Donovan	2014–	Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency	Gina McCarthy	2013–
Ambassador to the United Nations	Samantha Power	2013–	Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers	Jason Furman	2013–
Trade Representative	Michael Froman	2013–	Administrator of the Small Business Administration	Maria Contreras-Sweet	2014–

Below solid line: Granted Cabinet rank although not automatically part of the Cabinet. See also: Confirmations of Barack Obama's Cabinet

Executive Office of the President

Office	Name	Term	Office	Name	Term
White House Chief of Staff White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy	Rahm Emanuel Pete Rouse William M. Daley Jack Lew Denis McDonough Mona Sutphen Nancy-Ann DeParle Rob Nabors	2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013– 2009–11 2011–13 2013–15	National Security Advisor Deputy National Security Advisor Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan	Jim Jones Thomas E. Donilon Susan Rice Thomas E. Donilon Denis McDonough Tony Blinken Avril Haines Douglas Lute^†	2009–10 2010–13 2013– 2009–10 2010–13 2013–14 2015– 2009–13
White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations	Jim Messina Alyssa Mastromonaco Anita Decker Breckenridge	2009–11 2011–14 2014–	Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security	Ben Rhodes John O. Brennan Lisa Monaco	2009– 2009–13 2013–
White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Planning	Mark B. Childress Kristie Canegallo	2012–14 2014–	Deputy National Security Advisor and NSC Chief of Staff	Denis McDonough Brooke Anderson	2009–10 2011–12
Senior Advisor to the President	David Axelrod David Plouffe Daniel Pfeiffer Shailagh Murray	2009–11 2011–13 2013–15 2015–	White House Communications Director	Anita Dunn Daniel Pfeiffer Jennifer Palmieri Jen Psaki	2009 2009–13 2013–15 2015–
Senior Advisor to the President Counselor to the President	Pete Rouse Brian Deese Pete Rouse John Podesta	2009–10 2015– 2011–13 2014–15	Deputy White House Communications Director	Jen Psaki Jennifer Palmieri Amy Brundage	2009–11 2011–14 2014–15
Senior Advisor to the President and Assistant to the President for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs Director of Public Engagement Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Director, National Economic Council	Valerie Jarrett Christina Tchen Jon Carson Paulette Aniskoff Cecilia Muñoz David Agnew Jerry Abramson Lawrence Summers Gene Sperling Jeffrey Zients	2009– 2009–11 2011–13 2013– 2009–12 2012–14 2014– 2009–10 2011–14 2014–	White House Press Secretary Deputy Press Secretary Director of Special Projects Director of Speechwriting White House Counsel	Robert Gibbs Jay Carney Josh Earnest Bill Burton Josh Earnest Eric Schultz Stephanie Cutter Jon Favreau Cody Keenan Greg Craig Robert Bauer Kathryn Ruemmler W. Neil Eggleston	2009–11 2011–13 2013– 2009–11 2011–13 2014– 2010–11 2009–13 2013– 2009–10 2010–11 2011–14 2014–
Deputy Director, National Economic Council Deputy Director, National Economic Council Chair of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board	Diana Farrell Brian Deese Jason Furman Paul Volcker	2009–11 2011–13 2009–13 2009–11	Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs	Phil Schiliro Rob Nabors Miguel Rodriguez Katie Beirne Fallon	2009–11 2011–13 2013 2013–
Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors	Christina Romer Austan Goolsbee Jason Furman	2009–10 2010–13 2013–	Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs	Lisa Konwinski Amy Rosenbaum	2009– 2014–
Member of the Council of Economic Advisors	Katharine Abraham	2011–	Executive Clerk	George T. Saunders^† David Kalbaugh	2009–12 2012–
Member of the Council of Economic Advisors	Cecilia Rouse	2009–	Director, Office of Political Affairs	Patrick Gaspard David Simas	2009–11 2013–
Director, Office of Management and Budget	Peter R. Orszag Jack Lew Jeffrey Zients Sylvia Mathews Burwell Brian Deese Shaun Donovan	2009–10 2010–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014 2014–	Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Officer	Aneesh Chopra Todd Park Megan Smith Vivek Kundra Steven VanRoekel Tony Scott	2009–12 2012–14 2014– 2009–11 2011–14 2015–
Chief Performance Officer and Deputy Director for Management, Office of Management and Budget	Jeffrey Zients	2009–13	Director, Office of Presidential Personnel	Nancy Hogan Johnathan McBride Valerie Green	2010–14 2014–15 2015–
Deputy Director, Office of Management and Budget	Jeffrey Liebman Heather Higginbottom Brian Deese	2010 2011–13 2013–15	Director of Scheduling and Advance Director, White House Military Office	Alyssa Mastromonaco Danielle White Crutchfield George D. Mulligan, Jr. Emmett Beliveau	2009–11 2011– 2009–13 2013–
United States Trade Representative	Ron Kirk Michael Froman	2009–13 2013–	Cabinet Secretary	Chris Lu Broderick Johnson	2009–13 2013–
Director, Domestic Policy Council	Melody Barnes Cecilia Muñoz	2009–12 2012–	Deputy Cabinet Secretary	Liz Sears Smith Rachana Bhowmik Michael Robertson Gaurab Bansal	2009–11 2011–13 2013–15 2015–
Deputy Director, Domestic Policy Council	Heather Higginbottom Mark Zuckerman	2009–11 2011–	Staff Secretary	Lisa Brown Rajesh De Douglas Kramer Joani Walsh	2009–11 2011–12 2012–13 2014–
Director, Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships	Joshua DuBois Melissa Rogers	2009–2013 2013–	Assistant to the President for Management and Administration	Bradley Kiley Katy Kale Maju Varghese	2009–13 2013–15 2015–
Director, Office of Health Reform	Nancy-Ann DeParle	2009–11	Director, Oval Office Operations	Micaela Fernandez Brian Mosteller	2009–12 2012–
Deputy Director, Office of Health Reform	Jeanne Lambrew	2009–2011	Personal Aide to the President	Reggie Love Marvin Nicholson	2009–11 2011–
Director, Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy	Carol Browner	2009–11	Personal Secretary to the President	Katie Johnson Anita Decker Breckenridge Ferial Govashiri	2009–11 2011–14 2014–
Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change	Heather Zichal Dan Utech	2009–2013 2013–	Special Projects Coordinator and Confidential Assistant to the President	Eugene Kang	2009–11
Director, Council on Environmental Quality	Nancy Sutley Michael Boots	2009–2014 2014–	Director, Office of National AIDS Policy	Jeffrey Crowley Grant Cofax Douglas Brooks	2009–2011 2012–2014 2014–
Chief of Staff to the First Lady	Jackie Norris Susan Sher Christina Tchen	2009 2009–10 2011–	Director, Office of National Drug Control Policy	Gil Kerlikowske Michael Botticelli	2009–14 2014–
White House Social Secretary	Desirée Rogers Julianna Smoot Jeremy Bernard Deesha Dyer	2009–10 2010–11 2011–15 2015–	Director, Office of Urban Affairs	Adolfo Carrión, Jr. Racquel Russell	2009–2010 2010–
Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy	John Holdren	2009–

^*Senate-confirmation pending. †Remained from previous administration (s).

Office of the Vice President

Position	Appointee
Chief of Staff to the Vice President	Steve Ricchetti
Counsel to the Vice President	Cynthia Hogan
Counselor to the Vice President	Mike Donilon
Assistant to the Vice President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Liaison	Evan Ryan
Assistant to the Vice President and Director of Communications	Shailagh Murray
Deputy Chief of Staff to the Vice President	Shailagh Murray
Deputy National Security Adviser to the Vice President	Brian McKeon
Residence Manager and Social Secretary for the Vice President and Second Lady	Carlos Elizondo
National Security Adviser to the Vice President	Tony Blinken

Position	Appointee
Chief of Staff to the Second Lady	Catherine M. Russell
Director of Administration for the Office of the Vice President	Moises Vela
Domestic Policy Adviser to the Vice President	Terrell McSweeny
Chief Economist and Economic Policy Adviser to the Vice President	Jared Bernstein
Press Secretary to the Vice President	Elizabeth Alexander
Deputy Press Secretary to the Vice President	Annie Tomasini
Director of Legislative Affairs	Sudafi Henry
Director of Communications for the Second Lady	Courtney O’Donnell

Directors of the United States Office of Management and Budget

Dawes Lord Roop Douglas D W Bell Smith Webb Pace Lawton Dodge Hughes Brundage Stans D E Bell Gordon Schultze Zwick Mayo Shultz Weinberger Ash Lynn Lance McIntyre Stockman Miller Wright Darman Panetta Rivlin Raines Lew Daniels Bolten Portman Nussle Orszag Lew Burwell Donovan

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