President-elect Joe Biden has chosen Brian Deese, a former adviser to Barack Obama, to be the director of the National Economic Council, according to people familiar with the matter.
In his new post, which doesn’t require Senate confirmation, Mr. Deese will play a lead role in implementing Mr. Biden’s economic agenda, with a focus on rebuilding the economy amid a pandemic that has devastated many U.S. businesses and resulted in millions of lost jobs.
Mr. Deese served in multiple senior White House roles during the Obama administration. After working on Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign, he joined Mr. Obama’s National Economic Council, eventually rising to deputy director. He then served as deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. He was later promoted to senior adviser to the president, a position that focused in part on climate change and energy issues. He played a central role in negotiating the international climate-change agreement that was reached in Paris in 2015.
wsj.com