Chris Lu

Christopher P. Lu
Cabinet Secretary
In office January 20, 2009 – January 25, 2013
President	Barack Obama
Personal details
Born	(1966-06-12) June 12, 1966 New Jersey
Nationality	United States
Spouse(s)	Kathryn Thomson
Parents	Eileen and Chien-Yang Lu
Alma mater	Princeton University Harvard Law School
Occupation	Attorney, General Counsel

Christopher P. Lu (simplified Chinese: 卢沛宁; traditional Chinese: 盧沛寧; pinyin: Lú Pèiníng; born June 12, 1966) served as Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary for United States President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013.^[1] He also served as the co-chair of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.^[2] Lu graduated from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and from Harvard Law School, where he was a classmate of Obama's.

In 2005, Lu first began working for Barack Obama in his U.S. Senate office, where Lu served as legislative director and acting chief of staff. Following Obama's successful 2008 campaign for presidency, Lu was appointed executive director of the Obama-Biden Transition Project. When Obama appointed Lu as Cabinet Secretary, The New York Times described him as "one of the highest-ranking Asian Americans in the Obama administration".^[3]

Early life

Chris Lu was born on June 12, 1966 in New Jersey.^[3] In 1974, his family moved to the Fallsmead neighborhood of Rockville, Maryland, where he graduated from Thomas S. Wootton High School in 1984.^[4] Lu is the son of Eileen and Chien-Yang Lu, both of whom were born in Mainland China and lived in Taiwan until the 1950s when they emigrated to the United States to attend college.^[5] Lu's grandfather, Wang Ren-yuan, was the Minister of Justice of the Republic of China from 1970 to 1976 and was elected to the first Legislative Yuan in 1948 to represent Tianjin. Lu said he was heavily influenced by his father, who worked as an electrical engineer but loved literature and history; the two would read biographies of politicians and watch the evening news together.^[6]

Lu attended the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, where he was the senior news editor of the Daily Princetonian. Lu's ambition for a political career developed at Princeton, particularly during his internship in the Capitol Hill office of Senator Charles Mathias.^[7] He graduated magna cum laude in 1988,^[8] after writing a senior thesis on press coverage of presidential campaigns.^[7] After graduating from Princeton, Lu attended Harvard Law School, where he was one of Barack Obama's classmates from 1988 to 1991.

Career

After graduating cum laude from Harvard in 1991,^[8] Lu started his career as a law clerk to Judge Robert Cowen in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. In 1992, he began working as a litigation attorney at the Washington, D.C. office of Sidley Austin, a large Chicago-based law firm. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, also worked at Sidley Austin, in the firm's Chicago office.^[6]

In 1997, Lu left Sidley Austin and took his first job in the political arena as deputy chief counsel for Representative Henry Waxman and the Democratic staff of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee of the House of Representatives.^[6] Phil Schiliro, Waxman's chief of staff, had a large part in the decision to hire Lu; the two would work together again later on the Obama administration;^[9] Lu later said he considers Schiliro and Pete Rouse, another future White House staffer, among his most influential mentors.^[3] During his tenure with the Government Reform Committee, Lu conducted several high-profile investigations, including investigations into campaign fundraising during the 1996 presidential election, the collapse of Enron, and substandard nursing home conditions.^[8] Lu also served as special adviser for communications to Senator John Kerry during the 2004 presidential election. One of his primary duties there was coordinating the activities of families of September 11 attack victims supporting the Kerry campaign.^[8]

Barack Obama's Senate office

After Barack Obama was elected as U.S. Senator of Illinois, Lu joined Obama's office in early 2005 as legislative director. Lu developed a strong admiration for Obama, of whom he said, "With his quick and incisive mind, Obama is the most intelligent person that I have ever met (in the political arena)."^[6] As legislative director, Lu led a 15-person group and was responsible for overseeing the drafting of all legislation and advising Obama on votes and policy decisions.^[8] When weighing difficult votes, Obama had Lu and his other staff members assemble together and argue about the issue in front of him. David Mendell, a Chicago Tribune reporter and Obama biographer, said Lu was among the "moderate voices in this atmosphere of smart young staffers."^[10] Lu advised Obama to vote in favor of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 because he felt it would have been politically wiser to support it, but Obama ultimately voted against it.^[10]

Lu said of his role as legislative director, "It's one of the most fun jobs in the Senate (but) it's also an incredibly difficult job because you have to know something about any given thing going on in the Senate at the time ... It takes a couple years off your life."^[7] Lu, along with Robert Gibbs and several other Obama staffers, read Obama's manuscript for The Audacity of Hope and provided him with several editorial suggestions.^[11]

Lu eventually became acting chief of staff in Obama's Senate office. When Obama announced his candidacy for president in February 2007, Lu did not move over to the campaign, but remained to continue running Obama's operations in the Senate; Lu said of Obama at that time, "Even while he was running for president, he had a day job [in the Senate]."^[7]

Obama presidential administration

In May 2008, Obama asked Lu to begin planning for a possible presidential transition.^[12] Obama warned him to tell no one about the nascent operation, even his own wife, so Lu quietly rented a small office in D.C.^[12] and secretly met with people who had worked on previous Democratic presidential transition efforts.^[13] The planning efforts produced policy options on a wide range of topics, compiled names of and began vetting potential political appointees for top jobs, arranged over 100 security clearances, and managed the logistics for expanding the operations after Election Day.^[14]

After Obama's victory, Lu became executive director of the Obama-Biden Transition Project, a position that was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the transition. During the transition period, Lu was in daily contact with Bush administration officials, managed the $9 million budget, and negotiated the ground rules for Obama transition representatives to gather information on federal agency operations and programs.^[14]

Obama selected Lu to serve as Cabinet Secretary, making him one of the highest-ranking Asian Americans in the administration, along with Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu.^[5] At the time of his selection, New York Times reporter Michael Falcone wrote, "By now, Mr. Lu knows the president-elect's record better than almost anyone."^[3]

Lu's responsibilities included representing Obama's positions to each of the Cabinet secretaries and agencies and coordinating a common White House agenda among them.^[3] Marc Ambinder, associate editor of The Atlantic, said of Lu, "when agency heads have a problem, or when the White House has a problem with an agency head, Mr. Lu will be the first person who's called, or calls."^[15] Lu's office was on the second floor of the White House's West Wing.^[16]

In 2009, Lu visited China in July 2009 as part of an official delegation for the Obama administration, along with Locke and Chu. Although his parents were born there, it was the first time Lu had set foot on Chinese soil.^[5] Lu was introduced to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who said upon meeting Lu, "I know the name and also the importance of his position."^[17]

In July 2010, Lu was a member of the official U.S. delegation to the Shanghai Expo, along with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.^[18]

References

External links

• Chris Lu collected news and commentary at The Washington Post
• Chris Lu collected news and commentary at The New York Times

v t e Barack Obama's Executive Office of the President Office Name Term Office Name Term White House Chief of Staff White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy     Rahm Emanuel Pete Rouse William M. Daley Jacob Lew Mona Sutphen Nancy-Ann DeParle Rob Nabors 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012- 2009-11 2011-2013 2013- National Security Advisor Deputy National Security Advisor     Jim Jones Thomas E. Donilon Susan Rice Thomas E. Donilon Denis McDonough Tony Blinken  2009-10 2010-13 2013- 2009–10 2010-13 2013-  White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations   White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Planning Senior Advisor to the President   Counselor to the President Jim Messina Alyssa Mastromonaco Mark B. Childress David Axelrod David Plouffe Pete Rouse 2009-11 2011- 2012- 2009–11 2011- 2009- Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Douglas Lute† Ben Rhodes   2009– 2009– Senior Advisor to the President and Assistant to the President for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs Valerie Jarrett   2009–   Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security John O. Brennan 2009– Director of Public Engagement   Christina Tchen Jon Carson 2009–11 2011-- Deputy National Security Advisor and NSC Chief of Staff   Denis McDonough Brooke Anderson 2009-10 2011- Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Cecilia Muñoz 2009– White House Communications Director Daniel Pfeiffer Jennifer Palmieri 2009-13 2013– Director, National Economic Council   Lawrence Summers Gene Sperling 2009–10 2011- Deputy White House Communications Director White House Press Secretary   Jen Psaki Jennifer Palmieri Robert Gibbs Jay Carney 2009–11 2011–13 2009–11 2011- Deputy Director, National Economic Council Diana Farrell 2009– Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton 2009–11 Deputy Director, National Economic Council Deputy Director, National Economic Council Jason Furman Brian Deese 2009– 2011- Director of Special Projects Stephanie Cutter 2010-11 Chair of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board Paul Volcker 2009– Director of Speechwriting Jon Favreau 2009– Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors   Christina Romer Austan Goolsbee 2009–10 2010- White House Counsel   Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs   Robert Bauer Kathryn Ruemmler Phil Schiliro Rob Nabors 2009–11 2011- 2009–11 2011- Member of the Council of Economic Advisors Katharine Abraham 2011- Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs Lisa Konwinski 2009– Member of the Council of Economic Advisors Cecilia Rouse 2009– Executive Clerk George T. Saunders† 2009– Director, Office of Management and Budget   Peter R. Orszag Jacob Lew 2009–10 2010–12 Director, Office of Political Affairs Chief Technology Officer Patrick Gaspard Aneesh Chopra Todd Park 2009–11 2009 2012 2012- Chief Performance Officer and Deputy Director for Management, Office of Management and Budget Jeffrey Zients   2009– Chief Information Officer Director, Office of Presidential Personnel Steven VanRoekel Nancy Hogan 2011– 2010– Deputy Director, Office of Management and Budget   Jeffrey Liebman Heather Higginbottom* 2010 2011- Director of Scheduling and Advance   Director, White House Military Office Alyssa Mastromonaco Danielle Crutchfield George D. Mulligan, Jr. 2009-11 2011- 2009- United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk 2009– Cabinet Secretary Chris Lu 2009– Director, Domestic Policy Council Melody Barnes 2009– Deputy Cabinet Secretary Liz Sears Smith 2009– Deputy Director, Domestic Policy Council Heather Higginbottom Mark Zuckerman 2009–11 2011- Staff Secretary Lisa Brown 2009– Director, Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Joshua DuBois 2009– Director, Office of Management and Administration Bradley Kiley 2009– Director, Office of Health Reform Nancy DeParle 2009–11 Director, Oval Office Operations Micaela Fernandez 2009– Deputy Director, Office of Health Reform Jeanne Lambrew 2009– Personal Aide to the President Reggie Love 2009– Director, Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy Carol Browner 2009–11 Personal Secretary to the President Katie Johnson Anita Decker 2009–11 2011- Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Heather Zichal 2009– Special Projects Coordinator and Confidential Assistant to the President Eugene Kang   2009– Director, Council on Environmental Quality Director, Office of National AIDS Policy Nancy Sutley Jeffrey Crowley 2009– 2009– Chief of Staff to the First Lady   Jackie Norris Susan Sher Christina Tchen 2009 2009-10 2011- Director, Office of National Drug Control Policy Gil Kerlikowske 2009– White House Social Secretary Desirée Rogers Julianna Smoot Jeremy Bernard 2009–10 2010–11 2011– Director, Office of Urban Affairs Adolfo Carrión, Jr. 2009– Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy John Holdren 2009– *Senate-confirmation pending.   †Remained from previous administration(s).

Persondata
Name	Lu, Chris
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1966-06-12
Place of birth	New Jersey
Date of death
Place of death