SYMBOL LOOKUP
HOME
Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama's transition team named leaders for the groups that will review the Departments of Treasury, State and Defense to give the president-elect guidance on policy, budget and personnel decisions before taking office.
Among those named is Tom Donilon, a former executive vice president at Fannie Mae who will lead the State Department agency review team. Donilon also served as chief of staff at the State Department under former President Bill Clinton.
Leading the Treasury Review team is Michael Warren, who is on partial leave as chief operating officer of Stonebridge International LLC, a global strategy firm in Washington. He will be joined by Josh Gotbaum, a former investment banker and former chief executive of the September 11th Fund.
The teams will review more than 100 departments, agencies and commissions that fall under the executive branch, John Podesta, the head of Obama's transition team told reporters yesterday. The work will begin as soon as Nov. 17.
``This is part of our commitment to make this the most open and transparent transition in history,'' Podesta said.
Wendy Sherman, a former ambassador and principal in former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's consulting firm who served as special adviser on North Korea for President Clinton, joins Donilon on the State Department agency review team.
Defense Department
John White, chairman of Harvard University's Kennedy School Middle East Initiative, will lead the Defense Department agency review team. White serves on several boards, including L-3 Communications Holdings Inc., which makes intelligence and surveillance equipment and sells systems to the U.S. military.
Michele Flournoy, president of the Center for a New American Security, a Washington based policy group, will serve on the defense review team along with White.
As he did when he set up his transition advisory board, Obama welcomed some of his top fundraisers to the review teams. Donald Gips, co-chairman of the agency review group and a vice president of Broomfield, Colorado-based Level 3 Communications Inc., raised more than $500,000 for Obama's campaign. Tom Wheeler, a managing director of Core Capital Partners, an investment firm, raised between $200,000 and $500,000. Wheeler will help review the science, technology, space and arts agencies.
Former Federal Communications Chairman Reed Hundt, named as a member of the team responsible for international trade and economics agencies, raised between $50,000 and $100,000.
To contact the reporter on this story: Julianna Goldman in Washington at jgoldman6@bloomberg.net; Jonathan Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net.
