Chris Lu

Christopher P. Lu
Born	(1966-06-12) June 12, 1966 New Jersey
Nationality	United States
Alma mater	Princeton University, Harvard Law School
Occupation	Cabinet Secretary
Spouse	Kathryn Thomson
Parent(s)	Eileen and Chien-Yang Lu

Christopher P. Lu (simplified Chinese: 卢沛宁; traditional Chinese: 盧沛寧; pinyin: Lú Pèiníng; born June 12, 1966) is the current Cabinet Secretary for United States President Barack Obama's executive office. Lu graduated from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and from Harvard Law School, where he was a classmate of Obama, although the two were only casually acquainted at the time. He served as a litigation attorney for the Washington, D.C. firm Sidley Austin before taking his first political position as deputy chief counsel for Representative Henry Waxman and the Democratic staff of the United States House Government Reform Committee.

After serving briefly as an advisor on Senator John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign, Lu came to work in Barack Obama's U.S. Senate office, where he served as legislative director and acting chief of staff. Following Obama's successful 2008 campaign for presidency, Lu was appointed executive director of the Obama-Biden Transition Project. When Obama appointed Lu as Cabinet Secretary, The New York Times described him as "one of the highest-ranking Asian Americans in the Obama administration".

Biography

Early life

Chris Lu was born June 12, 1966 in New Jersey. In 1974, his family moved to the Fallsmead neighborhood of Template:City-state, where he grew up. Lu is the son of Eileen and Chien-Yang Lu, both of whom are of Chinese dissent and were living in Taiwan, but immigrated to the United States to attend college during the 1960s. Lu's grandfather, Wang Ren-Yuan, was the attorney general of the Republic of China from 1960 to 1966 and served as first Representative of the Legislative Yuan from Tianjin District during the period of Kuomintang rule in China. Lu said he was heavily influenced by his father, who worked as an electrical engineer but loved literature and history; the two would read biographies of famous statesmen together and watch the evening news together every night.

In 1984, Lu graduated from Thomas S. Wootton High School, where he served on the debate team. Lu attended Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, where he was the senior news editor of the Daily Princetonian. Lu's ambition for a political career developed at Princeton, particularly during his internship in the Capitol Hill office of Senator Charles Mathias; Lu's college roommate predicted Lu would eventually become a senator himself. Lu graduated magna cum laude in 1988, after writing a senior thesis on press coverage of presidential campaigns. Lu then attended Harvard Law School, where he was one of Barack Obama's classmates from 1988 to 1991. The two did not know each other well at the time, but as Obama was the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review, Lu was familiar with Obama and admired his talents.

Career

After graduating cum laude from Harvard in 1991, Lu began his career as a law clerk to Judge Robert Cowen in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. In 1992, he began working as a litigation attorney at Sidley Austin, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm with more than 1,800 lawyers worldwide. Lu worked in the Washington, D.C., office and stayed at the firm until 1997, during which time he met Kathryn Thomson, whom he eventually married. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, also worked at Sidley Austin, in the firm's Chicago office.

In 1997, Lu left Sidley Austin and took his first job in the political arena as deputy chief counsel for Representative Henry Waxman and the Democratic staff of the Government Reform Committee of the House of Representatives. Lu conducted several high-profile investigations during his tenure, including investigations into campaign fundraising during the 1996 presidential election, the collapse of Enron and substandard nursing home conditions. While continuing to work for the committee, Lu also served as special adviser for communications to Senator John Kerry during the 2004 presidential election. One of his primary duties there was coordinating the activities of families of September 11 attack victims supporting the Kerry campaign.

Barack Obama's Senate office

After Barack Obama was elected as U.S. Senator of Illinois, Lu left his job at the Government Reform Committee in 2005 to join Obama's office as legislative director. Lu developed a strong admiration for Obama, of whom he said, "With his quick and incisive mind, Obama is the most intelligent person that I have ever met (in the political arena)." As legislative director, Lu led a 15-person group and was responsible for overseeing the drafting of all legislation and floor speeches for Obama. His responsibilities also included advising Obama on all votes and policy decisions. When weighing difficult votes, Obama had Lu and his other staff members assemble together and argue about the issue in front of him. David Mendell, a Chicago Tribune reporter and Obama biographer, said Lu was among the "moderate voices in this atmosphere of smart young staffers." Lu advised Obama to vote in favor of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 because he felt it would have been politically wiser to support it, but Obama ultimately voted against it.

Lu said of his role as legislative director, "It's one of the most fun jobs in the Senate (but) it's also an incredibly difficult job because you have to know something about any given thing going on in the Senate at the time ... It takes a couple years off your life." After one year with the Senate, Lu told Washingtonian Obama was frustrated with "how the Republicans aren't interested in the issues that he thinks are important to the American people." Lu also explained part of the appeal of Obama was that "he's like a Rorschach test: you see in him what you want." During his time on Capitol Hill, Lu met Obama advisors and future White House staffers Pete Rouse and Phil Schiliro, both of whom Lu considers among his most influential mentors.

Lu eventually became acting chief of staff in Obama's Senate office. When Obama announced his candidacy for president in February 2007, Lu did not move over to the campaign right away, but remained to continue running Obama's operations in the Senate; Lu said of Obama at that time, "Even while he was running for president, he had a day job." Lu was a policy advisor for the presidential campaign while simultaneously managing his Senate duties.

Obama presidential administration

After Obama's victory, Lu became Executive Director of the Obama-Biden Transition Project, a position that was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the transition. Obama imposed strict conflict-of-interest restrictions on the transition team and left Lu largely responsible for enforcing them; any officials who even appeared to have a conflict of interest in working with the Obama administration had to seek a waiver specifically from Lu. During the transition period, The New York Times reporter Michael Falcone wrote, "By now, Mr. Lu knows the president-elect's record better than almost anyone."

Obama selected Lu to serve as Cabinet Secretary, making him one of the highest-ranking Asian Americans in the administration. Lu's responsibilities included representing Obama's positions to each of the Cabinet secretaries and agencies and coordinating a common White House agenda among them. Marc Ambinder, associate editor of The Atlantic, said of Lu, "when agency heads have a problem, or when the White House has a problem with an agency head, Mr. Lu will be the first person who's called, or calls." Ambinder also said the position would likely serve as a stepping stone to a more important frontline position for Lu.

Personal life

Chris Lu is married to Kathryn Thomson, an environmental lawyer. Lu is an avid runner and has participated in 18 marathons between 2002 and 2008, including the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. Lu has lived in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., but said he thinks of himself as a Marylander.

External links

• The New York Times, Times Topics: Christopher P. Lu