Zients left the White House in April after leading the administration’s pandemic response and leading the largest vaccination campaign in US history. He returned to the White House in the fall to help Klain prepare for post-midterm personnel changes. But in recent weeks, Klein has assigned him another project, which is seen as Gient preparing to take on the top role, said on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters. rice field.
A White House spokesman declined to comment.
Mr. Zientz will take over the top job as Mr. Biden enters a new difficult phase of the presidency. Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a special counsel to investigate the handling of classified documents found in Biden’s personal office and his home in Wilmington, Delaware. And Biden is gearing up for re-election.
Zients comes to this job with a very different profile than Klain. His first government job was during the Obama administration and he has spent most of his career in the private sector. He has only worked in the executive branch. There are no posts on his personal Twitter account.
But colleagues admire Zients as a master implementer who creates a deep loyalty from those he oversees.
As Biden ramps up his political campaign, some Democrats believe the structure of the role of chief of staff has changed, with Anita Dunn, Jen O’Malley Dillon, Mike Donilon, Steve Rickettie, He said he expects Biden’s political advisers, including Bruce Reed, to take office. Even more noticeable inside the building.
They compared it to the Obama White House deal when Jack Lu was chief of staff in 2012 and focused on keeping the federal government running. A senior advisor overseeing the re-election campaign. Democrats have said senior adviser Dunn will serve as a sort of proof.
Zientz, 56, was born in Washington and attended St. Albans School before graduating from Duke University. A successful management consultant, he ran an advisory board firm with David Bradley before going public and making tens of millions of dollars. In the early 2000s, the Zients tried to form a group to buy the Washington Nationals, but ultimately failed.
He first entered government under the Obama administration and has held multiple senior positions, including running the Office of Management and Budget and the National Economic Council. He was recognized for his “strong operational skills, including helping fix the problematic rollout of the Obama administration’s healthcare website, healthcare.gov.
After leaving the Obama administration, Zients ran an investment firm and served on Facebook’s board for two years, an experience that drew criticism from liberals.
During Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, Zientz was brought in to help finance the campaign during a particularly difficult time. He then co-chaired Biden’s transition before leading the administration’s coronavirus response.
In leading efforts to combat the pandemic, Zientz has taken on one of the president’s most challenging and important tasks. It was to oversee early efforts to vaccinate the American public and adapt to new, highly contagious variants. When Mr. Zientz left the White House, Mr. Biden hailed him as a “serviceman and expert administrator.”
“I asked Jeff Zientz to lead the administration’s COVID-19 response because nobody does it better than Jeff,” Biden said in a statement at the time.
