Valerie Jarrett

Valerie Jarrett
Senior Advisor to the President
Incumbent
Assumed office January 20, 2009 Serving with David Plouffe
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Barry Jackson
Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison
Incumbent
Assumed office January 20, 2009
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Julie Cram
Personal details
Born	November 14, 1956 (1956-11-14) Shiraz, Iran
Political party	Democratic Party
Spouse(s)	William Jarrett (1983–1988)
Children	Laura
Alma mater	Stanford University University of Michigan
Profession	Lawyer

Valerie Bowman Jarrett (born November 14, 1956) is a senior advisor and assistant to the president for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs for the Obama administration. She is a Chicago lawyer, businesswoman, and civic leader. Prior to that she served as a co-chairperson of the Obama-Biden Transition Project.

Personal

Jarrett was born in Shiraz, Iran to American parents James E. Bowman and Barbara Taylor Bowman. Her father, a pathologist and geneticist, ran a hospital for children in Shiraz, as part of a program where American doctors and agricultural experts sought to help jump-start developing countries' health and farming efforts. When she was five, the family moved to London for one year, returning to Chicago in 1963.

In 1966 her mother, Barbara T. Bowman, was one of four child advocates that created the Erikson Institute. The Institute was established to provide advanced knowledge in child development for teachers and other professionals working with young children.

As a child she spoke Persian and French.

Jarrett graduated from Northfield Mount Hermon in 1974. She earned a B.A. in Psychology from Stanford University in 1978, and a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981.

In 1983 Jarrett married Dr. William Robert Jarrett, son of famed Chicago Sun-Times reporter Vernon Jarrett. She attributes her switch from a private to a public career to their daughter Laura's birth and her own desire to do something that would make the daughter proud.

To one reporter's e-mailed question about her divorce, she replied, "Married in 1983, separated in 1987, and divorced in 1988. Enough said." In a Vogue profile, she further explained "We grew up together. We were friends since childhood. In a sense, he was the boy next door. I married without really appreciating how hard divorce would be." William Jarrett died of a sudden heart attack in 1993.

Career

Chicago politics

Jarrett got her start in Chicago politics in 1987 working for Mayor Harold Washington as Deputy Corporation Counsel for Finance and Development.

Jarrett continued to work in the mayor's office in the 1990s. She was Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor Richard Daley, during which time (1991) she hired Michelle Robinson, then engaged to Barack Obama, away from a private law firm. Jarrett served as Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development from 1992 through 1995, and was Chair of the Chicago Transit Board from 1995 to 2005.

Business administration

Until joining the Obama Administration, Jarrett was the CEO of The Habitat Company, a real estate development and management company which she joined in 1995. She has been replaced by Mark Segal, a lawyer who joined the company in 2002, as CEO. Daniel E. Levin is the Chairman of Habitat, which was formed in 1971. Jarrett was a member of the board of Chicago Stock Exchange (2000–2007, as Chairman, 2004–2007).

She is also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago Medical Center, Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago and a Trustee of Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. Jarrett serves on the board of directors of USG Corporation, a Chicago based building materials corporation.

Jarrett's previous year's income, in a 2009 report, was a $300,000 salary and $550,000 in deferred compensation from The Habitat Executive Services, Inc. The Wall Street Journal also reported she disclosed payments of more than $346,000 for service on boards of directors that reflect her political ties, and work in Chicago real estate and community development. She was paid $76,000 for service as a director of Navigant Consulting, Inc. a Chicago-based global consulting group with governmental clients. She received $146,600 from USG, and $58,000 to serve on the board of Rreef American REIT II, a real estate investment trust based in San Francisco. The Chicago Stock Exchange, Inc., paid her $34,444.

Advisor to Barack Obama

Obama speaks to Jarrett and other aides during a senior staff meeting in August 2009.

Barack Obama chats with Valerie Jarrett in the Blue Room, White House, 2010.

Jarrett is one of President Obama's longest serving advisors and confidantes and was "widely tipped for a high-profile position in an Obama administration."

“

Unlike Bert Lance, who arrived from Georgia with President [Jimmy] Carter and became his budget director, or Karen Hughes, who was President [George W.] Bush's communications manager, Ms. Jarrett isn't a confidante with a particular portfolio. What she does share with these counterparts is a fierce sense of loyalty and a refusal to publicly say anything that may reflect poorly on the candidate — or steal his thunder.

”

On November 14, 2008, President-elect Obama selected Jarrett to serve as White House Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison.

Jarrett is one of three Senior Advisors to President Obama. She holds the retitled position of Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement, managing the White House Office of Public Engagement, Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, Office of Urban Affairs, and Chairs the White House Council on Women and Girls, and White House Office of Olympic, Paralympic, and Youth Sport. She said that the 2011 report Women in America which the administration produced for the Council on Women and Girls would be used to guide policy-making.

The New York Times said that while there is no evidence of political favoritism, that Gregory Nelson, an aide to Jarrett, met with lobbyists from Solyndra at least three times. The company's failure could cost taxpayers more than a half-billion dollars.

Relationship with President Obama

Obama speaks with Jarrett in a West Wing corridor.

In 1991 Miss Jarrett, as Deputy Chief of Staff to Mayor Richard Daley, interviewed Michelle Robinson for an opening in the mayor’s office, and offered her the job immediately. Ms. Robinson asked for time to think and also asked Jarrett to meet her fiancé, Barack Obama. The three ended up meeting for dinner. After the dinner, Michelle took the job with the mayor's office, and Valerie Jarrett reportedly took the couple under her wing and “introduced them to a wealthier and better-connected Chicago than their own,” and taking Michelle with her when she left the mayor's office to head Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development.[1]

External links

• Valerie Jarrett at Whitehouse.gov
• Valerie Jarrett at WhoRunsGov at The Washington Post
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Valerie Jarrett on Charlie Rose
• Valerie Jarrett collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Works by or about Valerie Jarrett in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Valerie Jarrett at the Notable Names Database
• Obama's keeper: Valerie Jarrett, The Independent, 10 August 2009

Political offices
Preceded by Barry Jackson	Senior Advisor to the President 2009–present Served alongside: David Axelrod, Pete Rouse, David Plouffe	Incumbent