Joshua Brewster Bolten (born August 16, 1954) is an American lawyer and politician. Bolten served as the White House Chief of Staff to

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

, replacing

Andrew Card Andrew Hill Card Jr. (born May 10, 1947) is an American politician and academic administrator who was White House Chief of Staff under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2006, as well as head of Bush's White House Iraq Group. Card served as ...

on April 14, 2006. Previously, he served as the Director of the

Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, pol ...

from 2003 to 2006. Since 2017, he has been president and CEO of the

Business Roundtable The Business Roundtable (BRT) is a nonprofit lobbyist association based in Washington, D.C. whose members are chief executive officers of major United States companies. Unlike the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, whose members are entire businesses, BR ...

Early life and education

Bolten was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family, the son of Analouise (née Clissold) and Seymour Bolten. His father worked for the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

and his mother taught world history at

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

. He graduated from St. Albans School, and served on the school's board until 2007. Bolten attended

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

, where he studied in the

Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of comprehensive course ...

and served as class president and president of

The Ivy Club The Ivy Club, often simply Ivy, is the oldest eating club at Princeton University, and it is "still considered the most prestigious" by its members. It was founded in 1879 with Arthur Hawley Scribner as its first head. Ivy is one of the "Big Four ...

. He graduated in 1976. Bolten completed a 152-page long senior thesis titled "Judicial Selection in Virginia." He graduated with a J.D. from

Stanford Law School Stanford Law School (Stanford Law or SLS) is the law school of Stanford University, a private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, it is regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world. Stanford La ...

in 1980 and served as an editor of the law review. Joshua Bolten, Andrew Card, Joe Hagin

Career

Under President George H.W. Bush (1989-1993), Bolten was general counsel to the

Office of the United States Trade Representative The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is an agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government responsible for developing and promoting Trade policy of the United States, American trade ...

for three years and Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs for one year. Bolten was Executive Director for Legal and Government Affairs at

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...

in London from 1994 to 1999. He served as policy director for the 2000 George W. Bush presidential campaign Under George W. Bush he served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy at the White House from 2001 to 2003. Bolten served as Director of

(OMB) from 2004-2006. In 2006 he was appointed as White House Chief of Staff. He was the second Jew to hold that top position. ( Ken Duberstein, who held that post during the

Reagan administration Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following a landslide victory over D ...

, was the first, and

Rahm Emanuel Rahm Israel Emanuel (; born November 29, 1959) is an American politician and diplomat who is the current United States Ambassador to Japan. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served two terms as the 55th Mayor of Chicago from 2011 ...

, who held the post in the

Obama administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican ...

, was the third). Bolten served as White House Chief of Staff from 2006 until 2009. He recruited

Henry Paulson Henry Merritt Paulson Jr. (born March 28, 1946) is an American banker and financier who served as the 74th United States Secretary of the Treasury from 2006 to 2009. Prior to his role in the Department of the Treasury, Paulson was the Chairman a ...

—then-CEO of Goldman Sachs—to serve as

Treasury Secretary The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

, based on his former employment at the firm. In addition, he recruited

Tony Snow Robert Anthony Snow (June 1, 1955 – July 12, 2008) was an American journalist, political commentator, anchor, columnist, musician, and the 25th White House Press Secretary under President George W. Bush, from May 2006 until his resignatio ...

to work as White House Press Secretary, offered

Rob Portman Robert Jones Portman (born December 19, 1955) is an American attorney and politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from Ohio since 2011. A member of the Republican Party ...

the opportunity to succeed him as OMB Director, and brought his OMB deputy Joel Kaplan into the White House as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy.

Later career

Bolten became the John L. Weinberg/Goldman Sachs & Co. Visiting Professor at the

Princeton School of Public and International Affairs The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of comprehensive course ...

in September 2009, teaching courses on the federal budget and international trade and

financial regulation Financial regulation is a form of regulation or supervision, which subjects financial institutions to certain requirements, restrictions and guidelines, aiming to maintain the stability and integrity of the financial system. This may be handled ...

. In March 2010, Bolten was appointed a member of the board and co-chair of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, which has raised $36 million to date for immediate

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

relief and long-term recovery efforts in the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

country. In July 2011, Bolten co-founded Rock Creek Global Advisors, an international economic and regulatory policy consulting firm, where he served as managing director until 2017. In January 2017, Bolten was named president and CEO of the

, a conservative lobbying organization. He replaced former Michigan Governor

John Engler John Mathias Engler (born October 12, 1948) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 46th Governor of Michigan from 1991 to 2003. A member of the Republican Party, he later worked for Business Roundtable, where ''The Hill'' c ...

in the role.

Personal life

Bolten plays

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

in a band called The Compassionates. In 2015, Bolten married Ann Kelly.

References

External links

Biography in Stanford Law School magazineFriends discuss Bolten's college experience
at dailyprincetonian.com.
Yale Daily News: Bolten's Former Yale Colleagues Discuss the New Bush Tap
by Andrew Mangino and Maggie Reid *
C-SPAN ''Q&A'' interview with Bolten, May 22, 2005
, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Bolten, Joshua 1954 births 21st-century American politicians Directors of the Office of Management and Budget George W. Bush administration personnel George W. Bush administration cabinet members Goldman Sachs people Jewish American members of the Cabinet of the United States Lawyers who have represented the United States government Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Princeton School of Public and International Affairs alumni St. Albans School (Washington, D.C.) alumni Stanford Law School alumni Washington, D.C., Republicans White House Chiefs of Staff White House Deputy Chiefs of Staff