Jeff Zients
Official portrait, 2023
31stWhite House Chief of Staff
In office February 8, 2023 – January 20, 2025
President	Joe Biden
Deputy	Jen O'Malley Dillon Bruce Reed Natalie Quillian Annie Tomasini
Preceded by	Ron Klain
Succeeded by	Susie Wiles
Counselor to the President
In office January 20, 2021 – April 5, 2022 Serving with Steve Ricchetti
President	Joe Biden
Preceded by	Hope Hicks Derek Lyons
White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator
In office January 20, 2021 – April 5, 2022
President	Joe Biden
Deputy	Natalie Quillian
Preceded by	Deborah Birx
Succeeded by	Ashish Jha
10th Director of theNational Economic Council
In office March 5, 2014 – January 20, 2017
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Gene Sperling
Succeeded by	Gary Cohn
Director of theOffice of Management and Budget
Acting
In office January 27, 2012 – April 24, 2013
President	Barack Obama
Deputy	Heather Higginbottom
Preceded by	Jack Lew
Succeeded by	Sylvia Mathews Burwell
In office July 30, 2010 – November 18, 2010
President	Barack Obama
Deputy	Jeffrey Liebman
Preceded by	Peter R. Orszag
Succeeded by	Jack Lew
1stChief Performance Officer of the United States
In office June 19, 2009 – October 16, 2013
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Beth Cobert
Deputy Director of theOffice of Management and Budget for Management
In office June 19, 2009 – October 16, 2013
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Clay Johnson III
Succeeded by	Beth Cobert
Personal details
Born	Jeffrey Dunston Zients (1966-11-12)November 12, 1966 (age 59) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Mary Menell
Education	Duke University (BA)

Jeffrey Dunston Zients (/ˈzaɪənts/; born November 12, 1966) is an Americanbusiness executive and former government official who served as the 31stWhite House Chief of Staff from February 2023 to January 2025 underPresidentJoe Biden. Earlier in the Biden administration, he served ascounselor to the president andWhite House coronavirus response coordinator from January 2021 to April 2022.^[1][2][3]

During thepresidency of Barack Obama, Zients served as director of theNational Economic Council from February 2014 to January 2017, served as acting director of theOffice of Management and Budget in 2010 and from 2012 to 2013, and led the emergency effort to fixhealthcare.gov after the troubled launch of that critical component of theAffordable Care Act.

Before entering government, Zients was an executive at firms including the Advisory Board Company andCEB. Zients joined the Biden administration after taking leave from his position as chief executive officer of Cranemere, an investment firm. He was a member ofFacebook's board of directors from 2018 to 2020.^[4]

Zients was born inWashington, D.C., and raised inKensington, Maryland.^[5] His family isJewish.^[6][7][8] Zients graduated from theSt. Albans School in 1984 and earned abachelor's degree in political science fromDuke University,^[9] graduatingsumma cum laude in 1988.^[10]

After college, Zients worked in management consulting for Mercer Management Consulting (nowOliver Wyman) andBain & Company. As a consultant, Zients reportedly enjoyed the “culture, teamwork … and analytical rigor".^[11] After management consulting, he was appointed the chief operating officer of DGB Enterprises, a holding company for the Advisory Board Company,Corporate Executive Board, andAtlantic Media Company.^[12]

At age 35, Zients was named toFortune Magazine's "40 under 40", with an estimated wealth of $149 million.^[13]

Zients was the chief operating officer (1996–1998), chief executive officer (1998–2000), and chairman (2001–2004) of the Advisory Board Company and former chairman (2000–2001) of theCorporate Executive Board.^[14] Zients andDavid G. Bradley took each of the companies public throughinitial public offerings that made both menmultimillionaires.^[8][15]

Zients founded and was the managing partner of Portfolio Logic LLC, an investment firm primarily focused on health care and business services.^[14] He was a member of the board of directors ofXM Satellite Radio until its 2008 merger, and a board member atSirius XM Radio until his Senate confirmation.^[11][16] Zients also sat on the boards ofRevolution Health Group and Timbuk2 Designs.^[15]

In 2005, Zients formed a group withColin Powell andFred Malek, among others, to compete for the purchase of theWashington Nationals.^[17][18] The group planned for Malek to be the managing partner for the first three years, after which Zients would take over.^[18] The group was unsuccessful; the team was purchased by a group led byTed Lerner.^[14]

In 2009, PresidentBarack Obama appointed Zients to the new position ofUnited States chief performance officer and deputy director for management (DDM) of the Office of Management and Budget.^[19][20] It was Zients's first governmental experience.^[21]

According to Obama, his assignment was to help "streamline processes, cut costs, and find best practices throughout" the U.S. government.^[20] His nomination was approved by the Senate in June 2009.^[22][23] As DDM, Zients established and chaired thePresident's Management Council.^[24]

Zients was the acting director of OMB from July 2010 to November 2010, and again from January 2012 to April 2013.^[25][26][27]

Following the error-plagued launch ofhealthcare.gov on October 1, 2013, Obama and White House chief of staffDenis McDonough asked Zients to take charge of fixing the website.^{[28][29][30][31]} While leading the "tech surge" to do that, Zients also had an ownership position inPSA Healthcare. The position of the White House was that Zients's stake in PSA Healthcare, a pediatric home health business, was not a conflict of interest.^[28]

From 2014 to 2017, Zients was an assistant to the president for economic policy and director of theNational Economic Council (NEC).^[25] Zients also chaired thePresident's Management Advisory Board.^[32]The Wall Street Journal called Zients "a kind of ambassador to the business community",^[11] and lobbying groups such as theBusiness Roundtable and theU.S. Chamber of Commerce praised Zients as someone who heard them out.^[33]

At the NEC, Zients worked with theDepartment of Labor to finalize the fiduciary rule, also known as the conflict of interest rule. It required financial advisers to provide advice in their clients' best interest. The rule was strongly criticized by Wall Street leaders and business groups and was struck down by a federal appeals court in 2018.^[34][33]

In 2015, while NEC director, Zients described theTrans-Pacific Partnership as "a massive tax cut for American businesses".^[35]

Zients joinedFacebook's board of directors in 2018, following theCambridge Analytica scandal.^[36] While on Facebook's board, Zients chaired theAudit and Risk Oversight Committee.^[37][38] According to Facebook, he declined to seek re-election in 2020 "to devote more time to his business and other professional interests".^[39] Zients was paid $100,000 in cash and roughly $300,000 in stock in exchange for his work on Facebook's audit committee.^[38] As of December 2020, Zients had reportedly sold all of his holdings of Facebook stock.^[38] In December 2024, Facebook shareholders sought sanctions against Zients in relation to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. He was accused of deleting emails from his personal account that were relevant to the 2018 shareholder lawsuit, in violation of alitigation hold.^[40] The following month, vice chancellor ofDelaware Chancery Court denied sanctions against Zients stating that Zients' messages were "less pertinent" having joined the board after the Cambridge Analytica scandal.^[41]

Zients was the CEO of the Wall Street investment firm Cranemere, an investment firm owned byVincent Mai, for which he earned a combined salary and bonus of $1.6 million.^[33][42] As of December 2020^[update], Zients was on leave from his position as chief executive officer of Cranemere.^[33]

In addition, Zients was an investor in the D.C.-based bagel deli startupCall Your Mother.^[43]

In summer 2020, Politico reported that Saguaro Strategies, a media and consulting firm, heavily edited Zients'sWikipedia article as he became more prominent in theJoe Biden 2020 presidential campaign. For example, Zients had advocated for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which faced left-wing opposition, but the edit gave Zients's argument that it was "the most progressive trade agreement there’s ever been." It eliminated an Obama official's comment that he thought Zients was a Republican.^[36]

As of October 2020^[update], Zients was co-chair of thepresidential transition of Joe Biden.^[44] He was described as "an important power center in the Biden transition team" and noted as a candidate for several positions in the incoming administration.^[33] On December 7, 2020, the Biden transition announced Zients's presumptive appointment as coordinator of the COVID-19 response and counselor to the president.^[45] The absence of any comprehensive COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan at the time of the handover from the outgoing Trump administration became an urgent priority for Zients after the inauguration on January 20, 2021.^[46]

In July 2021, Zients came under criticism for delaying the relaxation of travel restrictions between the US and Europe.^[47]

In March 2022, Zients announced he would be leaving the Biden administration in April, to be succeeded as Coronavirus Response Coordinator byAshish Jha.^[48]

Zients was mentioned in anantisemitic flyer that originated in Australia in July 2022. The conspiracy theory posited that he and other Jewish people are part of acabal responsible forCOVID and a "COVID agenda".^[49]

On January 22, 2023, it was reported that Zients would replaceRon Klain as theWhite House chief of staff in February.^[1] On February 8, 2023, followingPresidentJoe Biden'sState of the Union Address the previous night, Zients took office to become the 31st White House chief of staff.

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