PRESS RELEASE from Obama for America
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
President-Elect Barack Obama and Vice President-Elect Joe Biden Today
Announced its Leadership For the Transition of Administrations
Chicago – For the past several months, a board
of advisors has been informally planning for a
possible presidential transition. Among the
many projects undertaken by the transition board have
been detailed analyses of previous transition
efforts, policy statements made during the campaign, and the
workings of federal government agencies, and priority positions
that must be filled by the incoming administration.
With Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s
election, this planning process will be now be formally organized as
the Obama-Biden Transition Project, a 501(c)(4) organization to ensure
a smooth transition from one administration to the next. The work
of this entity will be overseen by three co-chairs: John Podesta,
Valerie Jarrett, and Pete Rouse.
The co-chairs will be assisted by
an advisory board comprised of individuals with significant private and
public sector experience: 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.
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