PERSON: Tom Donilon

BlackRock Investment Institute

Chairman

Thomas Edward Donilon (born May 14, 1955) is an American lawyer, business executive, and former government official who served as the 22nd National Security Advisor in the Obama Administration from 2010 to 2013. Donilon also worked in the Carter and Clinton administrations. He is now Chairman of the BlackRock Investment Institute, the firm’s global think tank.

Originally from Providence, Rhode Island, Donilon spent his early career in Democratic politics and then in foreign policy and national security. He has advised the presidential campaigns of Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Joe Biden, Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton, designing policy, managing conventions, preparing candidates for debates, and overseeing presidential transitions. In 1992, Donilon was named chief of staff and assistant secretary of state at the State Department. During his tenure in the Clinton administration, Donilon played a leading role in NATO’s enlargement and the Dayton Agreement, and conducted diplomacy in more than 50 countries.

During the Obama transition, Donilon served with diplomat Wendy Sherman as Agency Review Team Lead for the State Department. Upon Obama’s inauguration he joined the administration as Deputy National Security Advisor, and was appointed National Security Advisor on October 8, 2010. Donilon tendered his resignation as National Security Adviser on June 5, 2013, and was succeeded in office by Susan Rice.

Since leaving government, Donilon has served in an advisory role as chair of the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity, appointed by Obama; and as vice chairman of the international law firm O’Melveny & Myers. During Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, Donilon was co-chair of the Clinton-Kaine Transition Project and its foreign policy lead. In 2020, Joe Biden reportedly offered Donilon the position of Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

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