Obama selects Zients as chief performance officer

[April 18, 2009]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama on Saturday named Jeffrey Zients, a longtime management consultant, as chief performance officer to head an effort to streamline government and cut costs.

The selection of Zients comes after Obama's first choice for the newly created position, Nancy Killefer, withdrew in February over tax problems. Zients, a founder and managing partner of the investment firm Portfolio Logic, will also serve as a deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Obama also named Aneesh Chopra, currently the secretary of technology for Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, as chief technology officer to help reduce health care costs and foster cybersecurity. He joins Vivek Kundra as chief information officer, who will be responsible for setting technology policy across the government.

"With the leadership of these individuals, I am confident that we can break our bad habits, put an end to the mismanagement that has plagued our government and start living within our means again," Obama said in his Saturday radio and Internet address. "That is how we will get our deficits under control and move from recovery to prosperity."

On Feb. 3, Killefer, a senior partner at McKinsey & Co., withdrew her candidacy to be chief performance officer, saying she didn't want her mishandling of payroll taxes on her household help to become a distraction for the administration. Killefer was one of several Obama choices for top positions who have dealt with tax problems.

They included former Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, who withdrew as a nominee for health and human services secretary amid controversy over his failure to pay all his taxes in the last two years until after his selection; and Timothy Geithner, the treasury secretary who had to pay more than $34,000 in back taxes and interest on income he made while working for the International Monetary Fund.

Zients has 20 years of business experience as a CEO, management consultant and entrepreneur. He has helped lead firms that provide performance benchmarks and best practices across a wide range of industries.

[Associated Press]

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