Walmart charity head to be named OMB chief

WASHINGTON, March 4 (UPI) — Walmart charity head Sylvia Mathews Burwell would be a great White House budget director, the U.S. retail chain’s chief said ahead of her likely choice Monday.

“Sylvia does a great job leading the Walmart Foundation and, if confirmed by the Senate, will do a tremendous job serving our country,” Walmart Stores Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer Mike Duke said in a statement.

President Barack Obama intends to nominate Burwell, a veteran of several top economic-policy posts in the Clinton administration, to the Cabinet-level post Monday, running the Office of Management and Budget and assisting Obama in preparing the White House federal budget, a senior administration official said Sunday.

“Sylvia is a strong leader who both masters the details and has a clear vision for making big things happen,” Duke said.

“She cares deeply about people and has natural personal warmth that enables her to build relationships and drive results that deliver impact,” Duke said. “She understands business and the role that business, government and civil society must play to build a strong economy.”

Burwell, 47, worked in the Clinton administration in the mid-1990s as OMB’s deputy director as well as deputy White House chief of staff. She previously was chief of staff for Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.

While in the Clinton White House Burwell worked closely with current Treasury Secretary Jake Lew — who was President Bill Clinton‘s OMB director at the time. She also worked with other Clinton officials who are now members of Obama’s economics team, including National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling.

The Washington Post pointed out Burwell brings corporate experience as well as gender diversity to Obama’s inner circle at a time of heated congressional budget battles and when many other top administration officials — including Lew, Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough — are men.

Burwell would be only the second woman to hold the budget director post, after Alice Rivlin, an economist now at the Brookings Institution, who held the job in the Clinton administration.

Burwell led the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation’s global development program after leaving the White House and before leading the Walmart Foundation. At the $36 billion Gates Foundation, she oversaw its efforts to help the world’s poorest people overcome hunger and poverty, her official biography says.

A Greek-American West Virginia native who graduated from Harvard and Oxford universities, Burwell replaces Jeffrey Zients, 46, at OMB. Zients has been acting budget director since January 2012, when Lew left the OMB directorship to become White House chief of staff.

OMB officials have been preparing the White House’s budget proposal for the fiscal year that begins in October. The proposal, due last month, has been delayed because of tax-code changes that were part of January’s “fiscal cliff” deal, White House officials say.

Source:
http://www.news.ezonearticle.com/2013/03/04/walmart-charity-head-to-be-named-omb-chief/