THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release                           

January 28, 2009

WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced that Diana Farrell and Jason Furman will serve as Deputy Directors of the National Economic Council (NEC).

President Obama said, "In this time of great economic crisis, the American people deserve urgent action. Diana and Jason, along with Larry Summers, will work day and night with me to advance an American Recovery and Reinvestment plan that not only aims to jumpstart economic growth, but also promotes the long-term investments in our economy necessary to save and create jobs, rebuild our infrastructure, and assure energy independence. This won’t happen overnight, but I have faith that this team has the knowledge and deep commitment needed to help me tackle the challenge of achieving the long-term economic stability that the American people deserve."

Farrell most recently served as the Director of the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), McKinsey & Company's economics research arm. Farrell's work has appeared in academic journals, books, and on the op–ed pages of leading international publications, and she is a frequent speaker at major U.S. and global conferences. She is the editor of an anthology series based on MGI research, published by Harvard Business School Press, 2007. Together with Lowell Bryan, she is the co-author of Market Unbound, published by Wiley & Sons, 1996.  Farrell was previously a leader of McKinsey's Global Financial Institutions and Global Strategy practices. Prior to joining McKinsey, she worked for Goldman, Sachs & Company in New York.  Farrell has a B.A. from Wesleyan University in Economics and in the College of Social Studies. She also holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.  Farrell is a member of Council on Foreign Relations, the Bretton Woods Committee, and the Pacific Council on International Policy. She is married with two children.

Furman took leave from the Brookings Institution to become the Economic Policy Director of Obama for America, where he helped develop and communicate the campaign’s policies.  He was a Senior Fellow in Economic Studies and Director of the Hamilton Project at Brookings. He began his career in public service during the Clinton administration, as a Staff Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers and subsequently a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy at the National Economic Council. In addition, he was a Senior Adviser to the Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank. Furman has also worked on research and in academia as a Visiting Scholar at NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, as a visiting lecturer at Yale and Columbia Universities, as a Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and at the Brookings Institution. He has conducted research in a wide range of areas, including fiscal policy, tax policy, health economics, Social Security, and monetary policy. Published in a variety of scholarly journals and popular publications, he recently edited two economic policy books. Furman earned his Ph.D. in economics and a M.A. in government from Harvard University and an M.Sc. in economics from the London School of Economics. He is married with two young children.