Lew, Jack

Lew, Jack (Jacob Joseph Lew), 1955–, American government official, b. New York City, grad. Harvard (1978), Georgetown Univ. Law School (1983). A Democrat, he first worked politics at 17 in Eugene McCarthy's campaign, and later became a senior adviser (1979–87) to House Speaker “Tip” O'Neill. In the Clinton administration, Lew worked (1993–94) on the development of Americorps and the health-care reform plan, and then served as deputy director (1995–98) and director (1998–2001) of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Subsequently an administrator for New York Univ. and an executive at Citigroup, he became deputy secretary of state for management and resources (2009–10) in the Obama administration before again serving (2010–12) as director of the OMB. Lew was Obama's chief of staff from 2012 to 2013, when he became Treasury secretary (2013–17).

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