Jeff Zients
White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator
Jeffrey Dunston Zients was born in December 1956 in Washington, D.C. He received a degree in political science from Duke University. He worked as a consultant at a management consulting firm and became the chief operating officer of a major holding company. He later became the chief executive officer and chairman of the Advisory Board Company.
He was appointed by President Barack Obama to be U.S. Chief Performance Officer and Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget. He established and chaired the President’s Management Council. He was acting director of OMB on two separate short-term occasions. For three years, Zients was an assistant to the president for economic policy and director of the National Economic Council.
He entered the private sector and joined Facebook’s board of directors. He chaired that group’s Audit and Risk Oversight Committee. He left Facebook to become CEO of a Wall Street investment firm.
In January 2021, Zients began serving as both Counselor to the President and Coordinator of the COVID-19 response in the president’s administration.
He is married to Mary Menell.
In the News…
The White House wants to re-open international travel boosting business for airlines and the tourism industry, but it is not ready to immediately lift restrictions because of the rising COVID-19 cases and the highly transmissible Delta variant. They are developing a plan to require nearly all foreign visitors to be fully vaccinated.
In a press briefing by the Coronavirus Response Team, Jeff Zients said the administration has interagency working groups looking “to have a new system ready for when we can reopen travel,” adding it includes “a phased approach that over time will mean, with limited exceptions, that foreign nationals traveling to the United States (from all countries) need to be fully vaccinated.”
The White House has held discussions with airlines and others about how it would implement a policy of requiring vaccines for foreign visitors. The administration must also answer other questions including what proof it would accept of vaccination and if the United States would accept vaccines that some countries are using but which have not yet been authorized by U.S. regulators.
Contact this Leader…
Did you pray for Mr. Zients today? You can let him know at:
Mr. Jeffrey Zients
White House Counsel’s Office
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20550
