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Sylvia Mathews Burwell

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Sylvia Mathews Burwell
Director of the Office of Management and Budget
Incumbent
Assumed office
April 24, 2013
PresidentBarack Obama
DeputyBrian Deese
Preceded byJeffrey Zients (Acting)
White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy
In office
January 1997 – May 1998
PresidentBill Clinton
Preceded byHarold Ickes
Succeeded byMaria Echaveste
Personal details
Born
Sylvia Mary Mathews

June 1965 (age 59)
Hinton, West Virginia, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseStephen Burwell
Alma materHarvard University
Worcester College, Oxford

Sylvia Mary Mathews Burwell (born June 1965) is the Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. She has served in that position since April 2013. Prior to that, she was president of the Walmart Foundation, having assumed that post in January 2012,[1] and was previously the president of the Global Development Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. While at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, her program focused on combating world poverty through agricultural development, financial services for the poor, and global libraries. She was Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director of the Foundation prior to its reorganization in 2006. She came to the Foundation in 2001, after serving as Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget in Washington, D.C., since 1998. She was nominated by President Obama on April 11, 2014, to be the next United States Secretary of Health and Human Services after the resignation of Kathleen Sebelius.[2][3]

Life and career

Mathews was born and raised in Hinton, West Virginia. She is the daughter of Cleo (née Maroudas) Mathews, a former Hinton mayor, and Dr. William Peter Mathews, a retired optometrist.[4] Her maternal grandparents, Vasiliki (Mpakares) and Dennis N. Maroudas, were Greek immigrants, as were her paternal grandparents.[5][6][7]

In 1982, she was a YFU exchange student in Japan. While still in college, she served as an intern for West Virginia Congressman Nick Rahall, as governor's aide to Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, and working on the Dukakis/Bentsen and the Clinton/Gore campaigns. Ms. Mathews served as Deputy Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton from 1997 to 1998, and was Chief of Staff to Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin from 1995 to 1997. She also served as Staff Director for the National Economic Council from 1993 to 1995. Prior to that, she was an Associate at McKinsey & Company from 1990 through 1992. She is a Member of the University of Washington Medicine Board, the Pacific Council on International Policy, the Aspen Strategy Group and the Nike Foundation Advisory Group.

Ms. Mathews received a bachelor’s degree in government, cum laude, from Harvard University in 1987 and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. Ms. Mathews has been a Director of MetLife and Metropolitan Life Insurance Company since January 2004. She often returns to West Virginia and to West Virginia University to speak, and recently a scholarship was established in her honor to support aspiring WVU political science students. In 2005 Mathews was chosen by the Wall Street Journal as one of The 50 Women to Watch -- 2005 world wide.[6] She was mentioned as a possible candidate to replace Patty Stonesifer, who had announced plans to step down as CEO of the Gates Foundation in 2008.[8] However, on May 12, 2008, the foundation announced that Microsoft executive Jeff Raikes would assume the CEO position. Reportedly, Mathews and the foundation's other presidents approved of Raikes' appointment.[9] Mathews was named Obama-Biden Transition Agency Review Lead for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.[10] She married attorney Stephen Burwell in February 2007.[11] They have two children.[12]

On March 3, 2013, President Obama nominated Burwell to head the White House Office of Management and Budget.[13] On April 24, the U.S. Senate confirmed Burwell to be the head of the OMB in a 96-0 vote.[14]

In October 2013, during the United States federal government shutdown of 2013, Burwell sent the email initiating the process that closed national parks, visitors’ centers and even the “panda-cam” at the National Zoo. "Agencies should now execute plans for an orderly shutdown due to the absence of appropriations," Burwell wrote in a memo to heads of executive departments and agencies.[15] She ordered the action because there was no "clear indication" that Congress would strike an agreement on a continuing resolution before the end of the day Tuesday. "We urge Congress to act quickly to pass a Continuing Resolution to provide a short-term bridge that ensures sufficient time to pass a budget for the remainder of the fiscal year, and to restore the operation of critical public services and programs that will be impacted by a lapse in appropriations," Burwell said in a statement.[16]

On April 11, 2014, Obama nominated Burwell to be the next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, succeeding Kathleen Sebelius, who announced her resignation the day before.[2]

References

  1. ^ "Walmart Foundation Names New President". news.walmart.com. October 14, 2011.
  2. ^ a b Budget Chief Is Choice as New Health Secretary
  3. ^ Memmott, Mark. "'I Knew It Wouldn't Be Easy,' Outgoing Health Secretary Sebelius Says : The Two-Way". NPR. Retrieved April 14, 2014.
  4. ^ "Beckley Post-Herald › 11 February 1958 › Page 5". Newspapers.com. February 11, 1958. Retrieved April 14, 2014.
  5. ^ "Obama taps Hinton native for budget chief » The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia". Register-herald.com. March 5, 2013. Retrieved April 14, 2014.
  6. ^ a b David M. Kinchen (November 5, 2005). "Hinton Native Sylvia Mathews Named One of World's 50 Women to Watch by Wall Street Journal". Huntington News Network. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  7. ^ "Outstanding Young Women of America - Google Books". Books.google.ca. Retrieved April 14, 2014.
  8. ^ Strom, Stephanie (February 7, 2008). "Gates Foundation Head to Leave Longtime Post". The New York Times.
  9. ^ Ben Gose (May 12, 2008). "Gates Foundation Picks Microsoft Veteran as New CEO". philanthropy.com.
  10. ^ "Economics and International Trade Team Leads". change.gov. March 4, 2013.
  11. ^ "Q&A | Sylvia M. Mathews, president of the Gates Foundation Global Development Program". seattletimes.com. March 17, 2007.
  12. ^ "OMB Leadership". Retrieved April 10, 2014.
  13. ^ Reilly, Mollie (March 3, 2013). "Sylvia Mathews Burwell To Be Nominated As White House Budget Chief: Sources". Huffington Post. Retrieved March 3, 2013.
  14. ^ U.S. Senate Periodical Press Gallery. Senate.gov. Retrieved on August 17, 2013.
  15. ^ "Meet Sylvia Burwell, the woman who ordered the government shutdown - News - MSN CA". News.ca.msn.com. October 2, 2013. Retrieved April 14, 2014.
  16. ^ "Shutdown begins, federal agencies close". TheHill. Retrieved April 14, 2014.
Political offices
Preceded by Director of the Office of Management and Budget
2013–present 		Incumbent

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