US President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Jacob (Jack) J. Lew as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the State of Israel.
Lew, an Orthodox Jews and a native New Yorker, is managing partner of Lindsay Goldberg LLC and a visiting professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University. Among the highlights of his career in public service, Lew served as Secretary of the Treasury for President Obama and had broad responsibilities for economic diplomacy.
In addition, he held positions as Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources and as Chief of Staff for the President. Lew was the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a position he also held in President Clinton’s Cabinet from 1998 to 2001.
In both Administrations, he was a principal at the National Security Council. Earlier, as Special Assistant to President Clinton, he was one of the architects of the national service program, Americorps.
Prior to joining the Obama-Biden Administration, Lew served as managing director and chief operating officer for two Citigroup business units.
Earlier he was executive vice president and chief operating officer of New York University and a professor of public administration in the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. He currently chairs the board of the National Committee on United States-China Relations, is co-president of the board of the National Library of Israel USA and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He earned an A.B. degree from Harvard and a J.D. degree from Georgetown University.
The nomination is not without criticism.
