Brian Deese

Brian Deese
13th Director of the National Economic Council
Incumbent
Assumed office January 20, 2021
President	Joe Biden
Deputy	David Kamin Bharat Ramamurti Sameera Fazili
Preceded by	Larry Kudlow
Senior Advisor to the President
In office February 23, 2015 – January 20, 2017 Serving with Shailagh Murray
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Pete Rouse
Succeeded by	Jared Kushner Stephen Miller
Director of the Office of Management and Budget
Acting
In office June 9, 2014 – July 28, 2014
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Sylvia Mathews Burwell
Succeeded by	Shaun Donovan
Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget
In office June 27, 2013 – February 13, 2015
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Heather Higginbottom
Succeeded by	Robert Gordon
Personal details
Born	Brian Christopher Deese (1978-02-17) February 17, 1978 (age 43) Belmont, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Kara Arsenault ​ (m. 2017)​
Education	Middlebury College (BA) Yale University (JD)

Brian Christopher Deese (born February 17, 1978) is an American economic and political advisor who is the 13th Director of the National Economic Council, serving under President Joe Biden.^[1] He also served as a senior advisor to President Barack Obama.^[2] Earlier in the Obama administration, Deese served as the deputy director and acting director of the Office of Management and Budget. Deese also served as deputy director of the National Economic Council.^[3] Deese served as the Global Head of Sustainable Investing at BlackRock.

Early life and education[]

Deese was born in Belmont, Massachusetts. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in international politics and economics from Middlebury College in 2000 and a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 2009.^[4] In 2002, Deese was named a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship, though he was not ultimately selected. ^[5]

Career[]

Deese worked as a junior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and as a research assistant at the Center for Global Development,^[6] hired by founder Nancy Birdsall, according to The New York Times, where he co-authored the book Delivering on Debt Relief. Later he worked as a senior policy analyst for economic policy at the Center for American Progress, under Gene Sperling.^[7]

Clinton and Obama 2008 presidential campaigns[]

After the Center for American Progress, Deese joined Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign as her economic policy director. After Clinton was defeated in the primaries, Deese went to work as an economic advisor to the Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign.^[8]

Following the 2008 presidential election, he served as a member of the Economic Policy Working Group for the presidential transition.^[9]

In the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese participates in a briefing Friday, January 22, 2021.

National Economic Council[]

At the start of the Obama presidency, Deese was appointed as a special assistant to the president for economic policy, serving in the National Economic Council (NEC). According to The New York Times, he emerged as "one of the most influential voices" on the auto industry, and specifically the Chrysler and GM bailout. Deese argued against the government letting Chrysler liquidate based on a concern around the impact on industrial communities across the mid-west.^[10]

In 2011, Deese was named deputy director of the NEC. In this role, he coordinated policy development for the White House on taxes, financial regulation, housing, clean energy, manufacturing, and the automotive industry. According to The New Republic, he was among Washington's "most powerful, least famous people".^[11]

Office of Management and Budget[]

Deese was named deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget in summer 2013. He briefly served as the acting director in summer 2014, between the departure of Sylvia Mathews Burwell and the appointment of Shaun Donovan.^{[citation needed]}

Senior Advisor to the President[]

Following the departure of John Podesta, Deese took over his brief on climate and energy. Unlike Podesta, who served as Counselor to the President, Deese was promoted to the position of Senior Advisor to the President.^[12][13] In this position, Deese played an influential role in negotiating the Paris Climate Agreement in December 2015.^[14] Along with Katie Beirne Fallon, Deese helped to negotiate the 2015 Bipartisan Budget Act, which replaced the budget sequestration and increased federal spending by $80 billion over two years.^[15][16] In February 2016, the President tapped Deese to oversee the Supreme Court nomination process, which led to the President's nomination of Chief Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court on March 16, 2016.^[17]

BlackRock[]

As Global Head of Sustainable Investing, Deese led BlackRock's Sustainable Investing Team which "is focused on identifying drivers of long-term return associated with environmental, social and governance issues."^[18] In an interview with The Weather Channel, Deese was asked about BlackRock's "heavy investments" in the fossil fuel industry.^[19] Deese said that BlackRock's role is to provide clients with "more choices and more options" in investments and "this is not just about excluding entire industries or entire classes of companies, but it’s also about getting to understand, again, which of these companies is better positioned for the transition."^[19]

During this time his salary was at least $2.3 million, with the possibility that through BlackRock’s restricted stock plan, Deese could have made an additional $2.4 million.^[20][21]

References[]

External links[]

• Media related to Brian Deese at Wikimedia Commons
• "Brian Deese, Senior Advisor." The White House.
• "Nomination of Brian C. Deese to be Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget" (PDF). U.S. Government Printing Office. May 13, 2013.