Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew
Name	Jacob Lew
Caption	Lew in 2013
Birth date	May 29, 1955
Birth place	New York City, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	Princeton University (A.B.), New York University School of Law (J.D.)
Office	76th United States Secretary of the Treasury
Term start	February 28, 2013
Term end	January 20, 2017
President	Barack Obama
Predecessor	Timothy Geithner
Successor	Steven Mnuchin
Party	Democratic Party

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Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew Jacob Joseph Lew is an American public official and policy advisor who served as the 76th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Barack Obama. Lew previously held senior roles in multiple White House administrations and in Congress, shaping fiscal policy through positions in the United States Department of the Treasury, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Executive Office of the President. His tenure intersected with major events such as the aftermath of the Great Recession, the Eurozone crisis, and debates over the United States federal budget and the debt ceiling.

Early life and education

Born in New York City to Joan and Arnold Lew, Jacob Lew grew up in Bayside, Queens and attended Brooklyn Technical High School. He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University with a degree in political science from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and was a Rhodes Scholar finalist before earning a J.D. from New York University School of Law. During his formative years he was influenced by civic figures such as Morris B. Abram, intellectual currents from Columbia University circles, and the policy debates surrounding Watergate and the 1970s energy crisis.

Lew's public service began on Capitol Hill as counsel to the United States House Committee on Ways and Means and as staff for Representative Dan Rostenkowski. He moved between the House of Representatives, the Senate Budget Committee, and executive branch offices, working with leaders including Geraldine Ferraro, Steny Hoyer, and Tom Daschle. In the 1990s he served in the Clinton administration at the Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Department of the Treasury alongside officials like Robert Rubin and Alice Rivlin. Lew also held positions at financial and non-profit institutions such as Citigroup-affiliated entities and Fannie Mae-related policy efforts while engaging with policy networks connected to Brookings Institution, Center for American Progress, and Economic Policy Institute scholars.

Lew served two terms as Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), first under President Bill Clinton in the 1990s and later under President Barack Obama from 2010 to 2012. In that role he coordinated budget proposals submitted to United States Congress committees including the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Committee on the Budget, negotiating with lawmakers such as John Boehner, Harry Reid, and Mitch McConnell. Lew oversaw budgetary responses to the 2008 financial crisis aftermath, the implementation of provisions from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and contested policy fights over the Affordable Care Act with stakeholders like Nancy Pelosi, Max Baucus, and Tom Coburn. His OMB leadership involved interaction with agencies including the Department of Defense, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Education on discretionary spending, mandatory programs, and deficit projections produced with experts from the Congressional Budget Office and the Government Accountability Office.

From 2012 to 2013 Lew served as White House Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama, succeeding William M. Daley and preceding Denis McDonough. As Chief of Staff he coordinated operations across the Executive Office of the President, interfaced with Cabinet members such as Hillary Clinton, Eric Shinseki, and Janet Napolitano, and managed White House interactions with Congress during negotiations on the fiscal cliff and sequestration following passage of the Budget Control Act of 2011. Lew worked closely with senior advisers including David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel, and Jim Messina while overseeing staff connected to policy offices like the National Security Council and communications teams led by Jay Carney.

Confirmed by the United States Senate in 2013, Lew became United States Secretary of the Treasury. His tenure engaged foreign and domestic fiscal matters, coordinating with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and finance ministers from countries within the Group of Seven and the Group of Twenty. Lew addressed issues related to European sovereign debt, sanctions policy involving nations such as Russia over the Ukraine crisis, and enforcement actions with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Domestically he participated in debt-ceiling negotiations with congressional leaders including Paul Ryan and Chuck Schumer, supervised anti-money-laundering initiatives with the Department of Justice, and advanced Treasury priorities on tax policy discussions with Senator Max Baucus and Representative Sander Levin. Lew also led Treasury during debates over financial regulation stemming from the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and engaged with regulatory agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Reserve, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

After leaving office in 2017 Lew joined academia, think tanks, and private-sector boards, participating in forums at Harvard Kennedy School, Columbia University, and the Council on Foreign Relations. He consulted with multinational firms and philanthropic organizations, interacted with institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and UBS on global finance panels, and contributed to policy discussions at the International Monetary Fund and World Economic Forum. Lew has spoken on fiscal policy alongside figures like Larry Summers, Ben Bernanke, and Janet Yellen and has been involved with nonprofit boards linked to United Way, UJA-Federation of New York, and civic projects in New York City and Washington, D.C..