OMB Leadership Bios
Jacob J. Lew, Director
Jacob Lew was confirmed by the Senate on November 18, 2010, as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, a position he previously held from 1998 to 2001. Before returning to OMB, Lew was the first Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, in which capacity he served as Chief Operating Officer of the department.
Before joining the State Department, Lew served as managing director and chief operating officer of Citi Global Wealth Management and then Citi Alternative Investments (CAI). Before that, he was executive vice president and chief operating officer of New York University, where he was responsible for budget, finance, and operations, as well as a professor of public administration. From 2004 through 2008, Lew served on the Corporation for National and Community Service Board and chaired its Management, Administration, and Governance Committee.
Lew served in President Clinton’s cabinet as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). From 1998 to 2001, he led the Administration budget team and served as a member of the National Security Council. During his tenure at OMB, the U.S. budget operated at a surplus for three consecutive years. Earlier, Lew served as OMB’s Deputy Director and was a member of the negotiating team that reached a bi-partisan agreement to balance the budget. As Special Assistant to President Clinton from 1993 to 1994, Mr. Lew helped design Americorps, the national service program.
Lew began his career in Washington in 1973 as a legislative aide. From 1979 to 1987, he was a principal domestic policy advisor to House Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr, where he served at the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee as Assistant Director and then Executive Director. There, he was the Speaker’s liaison to the Greenspan Commission, which negotiated a bipartisan solution to reform Social Security in 1983 and was responsible for domestic and economic issues, including Medicare, budget, tax, trade, appropriations, and energy issues.
Before joining the Obama Administration, Lew co-chaired the Advisory Board for City Year New York and was on the boards of the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Brookings Institution Hamilton Project, and the Tobin Project. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Academy of Social Insurance, and of the bar in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.
Heather A. Higginbottom, Deputy Director
Heather Higginbottom was confirmed by the Senate on October 20, 2011 as Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget. From February 2011 to October 2011, she served as Counselor to the Director of OMB. Higginbottom has spent her career in public service working extensively in the legislative and executive branches of government. She has also worked with non-profit organizations and brings a passion for domestic and economic policy issues to the table.
Prior to her role at OMB, Higginbottom served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council from January 2009 to January 2011. In that role, Higginbottom advised the President on a range of education, immigration, and economic development issues – including helping to design the Race to the Top and Promise Neighborhood programs. Higginbottom began working for then-Senator Obama in 2007 when she served as Policy Director for the President’s campaign overseeing all aspects of policy development.
From 1999 to 2007 Higginbottom worked for Senator John Kerry, serving in several capacities. She began on his Senate staff as Legislative Assistant handling domestic policy, eventually serving as his Legislative Director. Higginbottom also served as the Deputy National Policy Director for the Kerry-Edwards Presidential Campaign during the primary and general elections. After the 2004 campaign, she founded and served as Executive Director of the American Security Project, a national security think tank. Higginbottom began her career at Communities In Schools, a national non-profit organization dedicated to keeping young people from dropping out of school.
Higginbottom holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Rochester and a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the George Washington University.
Jeffrey Zients, Deputy Director for Management and Chief Performance Officer
Jeffrey Zients was confirmed by the Senate on June 19, 2009 as the Deputy Director for Management of the Office of Management and Budget and the nation’s first Federal Chief Performance Officer, and served as OMB’s acting director from July-November 2010. He has twenty years of business experience as a CEO, management consultant and entrepreneur with a deep understanding of business strategy, process reengineering and financial management. His expertise extends across a broad range of industries and geographies. Zients served as CEO and Chairman of The Advisory Board Company and Chairman of the Corporate Executive Board, firms that are leading providers of performance benchmarking and best practices across a wide range of industries, assisting senior executives at over 5,000 businesses to improve the efficiency of their operations. Zients began his career in management consulting at Bain & Company and Mercer Management Consulting, where he focused on developing strategies and improving operations of Fortune 1000 companies. Immediately prior to his Senate confirmation Zients founded an investment firm focused primarily on growth companies in the business and healthcare services sectors. He also co-founded The Urban Alliance Foundation, a non-profit organization that partners with corporations to provide economically disadvantaged youth with year-round paid internships, adult mentors and job training. Zients graduated summa cum laude from Duke University with a degree in Political Science. He and his wife Mary live in Washington, D.C. and have four children.
