Jack Lew

Jacob Joseph Lew (born August 29, 1955) is an American attorney and diplomat serving as the United States ambassador to Israel.

He worked as an aide to Rep. Joe Moakley (D-Mass.) from 1974 to 1975.

He graduated from Harvard College in 1978 and the Georgetown University Law Center in 1983.

In 1979, he was a senior policy adviser to House Speaker Tip O'Neill.

Under O'Neill he served at the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee as Assistant Director and then Executive Director, and was responsible for work on domestic and economic issues including Social Security, Medicare, budget, tax, trade, appropriations, and energy issues.

Lew practiced as an attorney for five years as a partner at Van Ness Feldman and Curtis.

His practice dealt primarily with electric power generation.

He has also worked as Executive Director of the Center for Middle East Research, Issues Director for the Democratic National Committee's Campaign 88, and Deputy Director of the Office of Program Analysis in the city of Boston's Office of Management and Budget.

In 1993, he began work for the Clinton administration as a special assistant to the president.

From February 1993 to 1994, Lew served as Special Assistant to the President under Bill Clinton.

Lew was responsible for policy development and the drafting of the national service initiative (AmeriCorps) and health care reform legislation.

In 1994, Lew served as associate director for legislative affairs and deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, then served as the agency's director, from 1998 to 2001.

Lew left the White House in October 1994 to work as OMB's Executive Associate Director and Associate Director for Legislative Affairs.

From August 1995 until July 1998, Lew served as Deputy Director of OMB.

There, Lew was chief operating officer responsible for day-to-day management of a staff of 500.

He had crosscutting responsibilities to coordinate Clinton administration efforts on budget and appropriations matters.

He frequently served as a member of the Administration negotiating team, including regarding the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.

President Clinton nominated Lew to be Director of the OMB, and his nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 31, 1998.

Following his work in the Clinton administration, Lew became executive vice-president of operations at New York University, serving from 2001 to 2006, then the COO at Citigroup, from 2006 to 2008.

He served in that capacity until the end of the Clinton administration in January 2001.

As OMB Director, Lew had the lead responsibility for the Clinton Administration's policies on budget, management, and appropriations issues.

As a member of the Cabinet and senior member of the economic team, he advised the President on a broad range of domestic and international policies.

He represented the Administration in budget negotiations with Congress and served as a member of the National Security Council.

During the Obama administration, Lew served as the first deputy secretary of state for management and resources from 2009 to 2010, before returning to his former post of OMB Director from 2010 to 2012.

A member of the Democratic Party, he also served as the twenty-fifth White House chief of staff from 2012 to 2013 and as director of the Office of Management and Budget in both the Clinton administration and Obama administration.

Born in New York City, Lew was educated at Harvard College and the Georgetown University Law Center.

He began his legal career as a legislative assistant to Representative Joe Moakley, and as a senior policy adviser to former House Speaker Tip O'Neill.

Lew then worked as an attorney in private practice before joining Boston's office of management and budget as a deputy.

He then served as chief of staff for the remainder of President Barack Obama’s first term from 2012 to 2013.

He was the seventy-sixth United States secretary of the treasury from 2013 to 2017.

On January 10, 2013, during Obama's second term, Lew was nominated to replace retiring Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, was confirmed by the Senate February 27, 2013, and then sworn in on the following day, serving until the conclusion of the Obama administration.

Since 2017, he has been a managing partner at Lindsay Goldberg, a private equity firm headquartered in New York City.

He is currently a visiting professor at the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University.

On September 5, 2023, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Lew to serve as United States ambassador to Israel.

His nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 31, 2023.

Lew was born in New York City, the son of Ruth (née Turoff) and Irving Lew.

His family is Jewish.

He attended New York City public schools, graduating from Forest Hills High School.

His father was a lawyer and rare book dealer who came to the United States from Poland as a child.

Lew attended Carleton College in Minnesota for a year, where his faculty adviser was Paul Wellstone, who eventually represented Minnesota in the U.S. Senate.