Jacob J. Lew

Jack Lew returned to SIPA after serving as United States Ambassador to Israel in the Biden Administration.  Previously he served as the 76th Secretary of the Treasury and White House Chief of Staff in the Obama Administration.  Earlier under President Obama he served as Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources and Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a position he also held in President Clinton's cabinet when the U.S. budget operated at a surplus for three consecutive years. Lew started his White House service in the Clinton Administration as Special Assistant to the President.  In that position he played a lead role in designing Americorps, the national service program, and worked on  health care reform with First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

In the private sector Lew served as managing director and chief operating officer for two different Citigroup business units. Prior to that, he was executive vice president and chief operating officer of New York University, where he was responsible for budget, finance, and operations, and served as a professor of public administration.   He has served on numerous public and non-profit boards, including the Corporation for National and Community Service, where he chaired its Management, Administration, and Governance Committee.

Lew began his career in Washington in 1973 as a legislative aide. From 1979 to 1987, he was a principal domestic policy advisor to House Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr., when he served the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee as Assistant Director and then Executive Director. He was the Speaker's liaison to the Greenspan Commission, which negotiated a bipartisan solution to extend the solvency of Social Security in 1983, and was responsible for domestic and economic issues, including Medicare, budget, tax, trade, appropriations, and energy issues.

He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science, the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Academy of Social Insurance, and of the bar in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. 

Education

• AB, Harvard University, Magna cum laude
• JD, Georgetown University Law Center