John Podesta, a former White House chief of staff who was tapped by President-elect Barack Obama fall to head his transition planning. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
by John McCormick, updated
President-elect Barack Obama made his first announcements for a transition team this afternoon, saying it will be overseen by John Podesta, Valerie Jarrett, and Pete Rouse.
Podesta is a Chicago native and former chief of staff for President Bill Clinton. Podesta also once served as a staff counsel in the Senate, where one of his bosses was then-Sen. Tom Daschle, a possible White House chief of staff and an Obama confidant.
Jarrett is a close Obama family friend from Chicago who has served as a top adviser to Obama throughout the campaign. Rouse has served as the chief of staff for Obama's senate office and is widely viewed as a likely deputy chief of staff in the White House.
Additional co-chairs were named to an advisory board. That list includes: Carol Browner, William Daley, Christopher Edley, Michael Froman, Julius Genachowski, Donald Gips, Governor Janet Napolitano, Federico Peña, Susan Rice, Sonal Shah, Mark Gitenstein, and Ted Kaufman.
Gitenstein and Kaufman will serve as co-chairs of Vice President-elect Biden's transition team, the transition staff said in a news release.
Supervising the day-to-day activities of the transition will be:
Transition Senior Staff:
Chris Lu - Executive Director
Dan Pfeiffer - Communications Director
Stephanie Cutter - Chief Spokesperson
Cassandra Butts - General Counsel
Jim Messina - Personnel Director
Patrick Gaspard - Associate Personnel Director
Christine Varney - Personnel Counsel
Melody Barnes - Co-Director of Agency Review
Lisa Brown - Co-Director of Agency Review
Phil Schiliro - Director of Congressional Relations
Michael Strautmanis - Director of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs
Katy Kale - Director of Operations
Brad Kiley - Director of Operations
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