John Podesta

Infobox US Cabinet official
name=John David Podesta


imagesize=170px
order=20^th
title=White House Chief of Staff
term_start=1998
term_end=January 20, 2001
predecessor=Erskine Bowles
successor= Andrew Card
president=Bill Clinton
birth_date=birth date and age|1949|01|15
birth_place= Chicago, Illinois
death_date=
death_place=
party=Democrat
spouse=
profession=

John David Podesta (born January 15, 1949) was the fourth and final White House Chief of Staff under President Bill Clinton from 1998 until 2001. He is currently President of the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank in Washington, D.C. Podesta is also a Visiting Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center.

Before the White House

Podesta spent most of his early years in Chicago. In 1971 he became a graduate of Knox College. Afterwards he attended and graduated from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1976. Podesta worked as a trial attorney in the Department of Justice's Honors Program in the Land and Natural Resources Division (1976-1977), and as a Special Assistant to the Director of ACTION, the federal volunteer agency, (1978-1979).

He then held a number of positions on Capitol Hill including: Counselor to Democratic Leader Senator Thomas Daschle (1995-1996); Chief Counsel for the Senate Agriculture Committee (1987-1988); Chief Minority Counsel for the Senate Judiciary Subcommittees on Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks; Security and Terrorism; and Regulatory Reform; and Counsel on the Majority Staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee (1979-1981). In addition, in 1988, Podesta founded with his brother Tony, Podesta Associates, Inc., a Washington, D.C. government relations and public affairs firm. He also served as a member of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States, and the United States Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy.

The Clinton years

Podesta served as both an Assistant to the President and as Deputy Chief of Staff. Earlier, from January 1993 to 1995, he was Assistant to the President, Staff Secretary and a senior policy adviser on government information, privacy, telecommunications security and regulatory policy. In 1998 he became President Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff in the second Clinton Administration and executed the position until the end of the President's time in office in January 2001.

Recent years

John Podesta became an Honorary Patron of the prestigious University Philosophical Society in March 2006. Podesta founded and is currently President of the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank in Washington, D.C. In addition to his work at American Progress, Podesta is currently a Visiting Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, where he has taught classes on Congressional investigations and technology law and policy. He is also a member of the Constitution Project's bipartisan Liberty and Security Committee. [http://www.constitutionproject.org/libertyandsecurity/members.cfm?categoryId=3] .

In 2008, Podesta authored his book [http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Power-of-Progress-Book-Forum/20069201036 The Power of Progress: How America's Progressives Can (Once Again) Save Our Economy, Our Climate, and Our Country] . In it, he articulates a clear vision of progressive values based on four core lessons: 1) Progressives stand with people, not privilege; 2) Progressives believe in the Common Good and a government that offers a hand up; 3) Progressives hold that all people are equal in the eyes of God and under the law; and 4) Progressives stand for universal human rights and cooperative global security.

He is also heading up the Barack Obama transition team [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/08/obama-mccain-transition-e_n_132976.html] .

References

*Clinton, Bill (2005). "My Life". Vintage. ISBN 1-4000-3003-X.

External links

* [http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Power-of-Progress-Book-Forum/20069201036 The Power of Progress Book Forum on Facebook]