Jeff Zients to be Biden's next chief of staff - The Washington Post

A White House spokesperson declined to comment.

Zients takes implicit the apical occupation arsenic Biden is entering a caller and challenging agelong of his presidency: Republicans person already launched a barrage of investigations into the medication and the concern dealings of the president’s son. Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a peculiar counsel to analyse the handling of classified documents recovered astatine Biden’s idiosyncratic bureau and Wilmington, Del., home. And Biden is preparing to motorboat his reelection bid.

Zients comes into the occupation with a vastly antithetic illustration than Klain: His archetypal authorities occupation was during the Obama administration, and helium has spent astir of his vocation successful the backstage sector. He has lone ever worked successful the enforcement branch. His idiosyncratic Twitter relationship has nary posts.

But colleagues person praised Zients arsenic a maestro implementer who engenders heavy loyalty from the radical helium oversees.

As Biden ramps up his governmental activity, immoderate Democrats said they expect the operation of the main of unit relation to change, with Biden’s governmental advisers, including Anita Dunn, Jen O’Malley Dillon, Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti and Bruce Reed, taking connected adjacent much prominence successful the building.

They compared the statement to that of the Obama White House, erstwhile Jack Lew served arsenic main of unit successful 2012 and focused connected keeping the national authorities running, portion David Plouffe, a governmental strategist, came into the White House from 2011 to 2013 arsenic a elder advisor to oversee the reelection campaign. Democrats accidental Dunn, a elder adviser, volition service successful a Plouffe-like role.

Zients, 56, was calved successful Washington and attended St. Albans School earlier graduating from Duke University. A palmy absorption consultant, helium ran the Advisory Board Company alongside David Bradley earlier taking it nationalist and netting tens of millions of dollars. In the aboriginal 2000s, Zients formed a radical to effort to acquisition the Washington Nationals, an effort that was yet unsuccessful.

He archetypal entered authorities during the Obama medication and ended up serving successful aggregate elder roles, including moving the Office of Management and Budget and the National Economic Council. He developed a estimation arsenic “Mr. Fix-It” for his beardown operational skills, including helping to hole the troubled rollout of the Obama administration’s health-care website, healthcare.gov.

After leaving the Obama administration, Zients ran a backstage equity steadfast and spent 2 years connected the committee of Facebook, acquisition that has drawn disapproval from liberals.

During Biden’s 2020 statesmanlike campaign, Zients was brought successful to assistance with the campaign’s finances during a peculiarly hard stretch. He past co-chaired Biden’s modulation earlier starring the administration’s coronavirus response.

In starring the effort to combat the pandemic, Zients took connected 1 of the astir challenging and captious task for the president — overseeing the aboriginal efforts to vaccinate the American nationalist and accommodate to caller and highly infectious variants. When Zients near the White House, Biden praised him arsenic a “man of work and an adept manager.”

“I called connected Jeff Zients to pb my Administration’s COVID-19 effect due to the fact that determination is nary 1 amended astatine delivering results than Jeff,” Biden said successful a connection astatine the time.