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Thomas E. Donilon is Deputy National Security Adviser in the Obama Administration^[1], and has had a career as a U.S. political adviser, government official and lawyer. He served together with diplomat Wendy Sherman as Agency Review Team Lead for the State Department in the Obama transition ^[2], and was reported to be the frontrunner for the National Security position.^[3]

Education and personal life

Hailing from Providence, RI, Donilon earned a B.A. at Catholic University of America in 1977 and a J.D. at the University of Virginia in 1985. He served on the Editorial Board of the Virginia Law Review. He is married to Cathy Russell, who has been named Chief of Staff to Jill Biden, and he is the brother of Mike Donilon, a lawyer and political consultant who has been chosen to serve as Counselor to Vice President Joe Biden. He lives with his wife and two children. ^{[4] [5]}

Government and political work

During the Carter Administration, Donilon worked in the White House Office of Congressional Liaison ^[6]. He was manager of the 1980 and 1984 Democratic National Conventions. Beginning in 1986, he served as a Senior Advisor to Senate Judiciary Committee Joseph Biden on Supreme Court nominations. ^[7] After Biden ended his 1988 presidential campaign, Donilon became a senior adviser to the presidential campaign of former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, with responsibility for debate preparation; he later went on to assist Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton with debate preparation and then serve as an adviser to President Clinton's 1992 presidential transition. Donilon later assisted Barack Obama in preparing to debate with Arizona Senator John McCain in the 2008 presidential election.

During the Clinton Administration, Donilon became part of the Democratic foreign policy establishment as the State Department's chief spokesman and chief of staff to Secretary of State Warren Christopher. ^[8] In November 1996, he was awarded the State Department's highest award: the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award. ^[9]

Because of his professional connections and family ties to Vice President Biden and the Bidens' staff members, Donilon in the National Security position was expected to see to it that the Vice President's office was kept fully involved in foreign policy and defense matters. ^[10]

Private sector

He worked as Executive Vice President for Law and Policy at Fannie Mae, the federally-chartered mortgage finance company. This line on his resume raised eyebrows when his appointment to the Obama transition team was announced, given that the company had been seized by federal regulators. ^[11] The Washington Times reported that Donilon made millions for work that including supervising Fannie Mae's lobbying against increased regulation. ^[12]

Before his appointment to the Obama Administration, Donilon was a partner in the Washington law firm O'Melveny & Myers, where he advised companies and their boards on a range of "sensitive governance, policy, legal and regulatory matters." ^[13] His previous year's income, in a 2009 report, was reported by the The Wall Street Journal to have been $3.9 million; his clients included Citigroup, Inc., Goldman, Sachs & Co., and Obama fundraiser and heiress Penny Pritzker.^[1]

References