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Chris Lu

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Christopher P. Lu
盧沛寧
File:Chrisluofficialphoto.jpg
Born (1966-06-12) June 12, 1966 (age 58)
New Jersey
NationalityUnited States
Alma materPrinceton University,
Harvard Law School
OccupationCabinet Secretary
SpouseKathryn 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 Assistant to the President and 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's. 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".[1]

Early life

Chris Lu was born June 12, 1966 in New Jersey.[1] In 1974, his family moved to the Fallsmead neighborhood of Template:City-state,[2] where he grew up. Lu is the son of Eileen and Chien-Yang Lu, both of whom were born in Mainland China and lived in Taiwan until the 1950s when they emigrated to the United States to attend college.[3] Lu's grandfather, Wang Ren-yuan, was the Minister of Justice of the Republic of China from 1970 to 1976 and was elected to the first Legislative Yuan in 1948 to represent Tianjin City. 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 politicians and watch the evening news together.[4]

In 1984, Lu graduated from Thomas S. Wootton High School, where he served on the debate team.[2] 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.[5] He graduated magna cum laude in 1988,[6] after writing a senior thesis on press coverage of presidential campaigns.[5] After graduating from Princeton, Lu attended Harvard Law School, where he was one of Barack Obama's classmates from 1988 to 1991.

Career

After graduating cum laude from Harvard in 1991,[6] 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 the Washington, D.C. office of Sidley Austin, a Chicago-based law firm with more than 1,800 lawyers worldwide. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, also worked at Sidley Austin, in the firm's Chicago office.[4]

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 Oversight and Government Reform Committee of the House of Representatives.[4] Phil Schiliro, Waxman's chief of staff, had a large part in the decision to hire Lu; the two would work together again later on the Obama administration;[7] Lu later said he considers Schiliro and Pete Rouse, another future White House staffer, among his most influential mentors.[1] During his tenure with the Government Reform Committee, Lu conducted several high-profile investigations, including investigations into campaign fundraising during the 1996 presidential election, the collapse of Enron and substandard nursing home conditions.[6] 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.[6]

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)."[4] As legislative director, Lu led a 15-person group and was responsible for overseeing the drafting of all legislation and advising Obama on all votes and policy decisions.[6] 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."[8] 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.[8]

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."[5] Lu, along with Robert Gibbs and several other Obama staffers, read the Obama's manuscript for The Audacity of Hope and provided him with several editorial suggestions.[9]

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."[5] Lu was a policy advisor for the presidential campaign while simultaneously managing his Senate duties. Lu also served as communications director for Obama's primary campaign in Delaware.[10]

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 several conflict-of-interest restrictions on the transition team, leaving Lu largely responsible for enforcing them; any officials who had a conflict of interest in working with the Obama administration had to seek a waiver specifically from Lu.[11] 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."[1] Lu's office is in the second floor of the White House's West Wing.[12]

"My job (at the White House) is the same job I've had all along, which is to keep the trains running on time, and to make sure that on any given day, the White House and the agencies are all moving down the same set of tracks."

Chris Lu[3]

Obama selected Lu to serve as Cabinet Secretary, making him one of the highest-ranking Asian Americans in the administration, along with Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu.[3] Lu's responsibilities include representing Obama's positions to each of the Cabinet secretaries and agencies and coordinating a common White House agenda among them.[1] 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."[13]

Lu visited China in July 2009 as part of an official delegation for the Obama administration, along with Locke and Chu. Although his parents were born there, it was the first time Lu had set foot on Chinese soil.[3] When Lu was introduced to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in July 2009, Wen said upon meeting Lu, "I know the name and also the importance of his position."[14]

Personal life

Lu is an avid runner and has participated in 18 marathons between 2002 and 2008, including the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C.[1] Lu has lived in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., but said he thinks of himself as a Marylander.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Falcone, Michael (2008-12-01). "The New Team: Christopher Lu". The New York Times.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  2. ^ a b c Hendrix, Steve (2008-12-14). "For Some on Obama Team, Capital Is Close to Home". The Washington Post. pp. C01.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  3. ^ a b c d Lois Romano (2009-10-22). "Voices of Power: Chris Lu". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
  4. ^ a b c d Chiu, Christine (2008-04-20). "Chinese-American Chief of Staff Chris Lu assists Obama". World Journal. pp. A–3.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  5. ^ a b c d Cornelia Hall (2008-11-07). "Obama taps Lu '88 to help run transition". Retrieved 2008-12-30.
  6. ^ a b c d e "Kaleo O Aapi: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders." Obama for America, official campaign literature, pg.4, July 25, 2008.
  7. ^ Martin, Jonathan (2008-02-22). "Big W.H. role for low-profile Schiliro". The Politico. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  8. ^ a b Mendell, David (2007). "Chapter 22: The Senator". Obama: From Promise to Power (in English) (1st ed.). New York City: HarperCollins. p. 311. ISBN 0060858206.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  9. ^ Obama, Barack (2008). The Audacity of Hope. New York City, New York: Three Rivers Press. p. 364. ISBN 0307455874.
  10. ^ Nitkin, David (2008-02-08). "Small states get big-time attention". The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. A-3.
  11. ^ Kirkpatrick, David D. (2008-11-14). "In Transition, Ties to Lobbying". The New York Times.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  12. ^ "Inside the White House" (PDF). The Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-09-09.
  13. ^ Ambinder, Marc (2008-11-19). "Axelrod, Brown, Craig, Lu Announced". The Atlantic. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  14. ^ Palmer, Doug (2009-07-16). "Do looks matter in China?". Reuters. Retrieved 2009-09-09.
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