Thomas Donilon Biography

On the worldwide governing committee of the multinational legal firm O'Melveny & Myers, Thomas E. Donilon holds the position of vice chair. Also a senior director at the BlackRock Investment Institute, Mr. Donilon. He advised President Barack Obama on national security from 2010 to 2013. In that role, Mr. Donilon was in charge of managing the National Security Council staff, serving as the chair of the cabinet-level National Security Principals Committee, delivering the daily national security briefing to the president, and coordinating and integrating the administration's foreign policy, intelligence, and military initiatives. Prior to this, Mr. Donilon held the positions of principal deputy national security advisor and assistant to the president. He was in charge of overseeing the formulation of national security policies and the crisis management procedure for the American government in that capacity. The Obama-Biden transition at the US Department of State was presided over by Mr. Donilon. Mr. Donilon oversaw the planning for President Obama's general election debate during the 2008 campaign. Mr. Donilon is a senior non-resident fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the Central Intelligence Agency's External Advisory Board, and the U.S. Defense Policy Board. He also serves on the board of directors for Delta Air Lines. Since taking up his first post at the White House in 1977, working with President Carter, Mr. Donilon has collaborated closely with and counseled three American presidents. During the Clinton administration, he held the positions of chief of staff and assistant secretary of state in the American Department of State. In this role, Mr. Donilon was in charge of formulating and carrying out the department's main policy objectives, including as the Middle East peace process, the Dayton Peace Accords, and NATO enlargement. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint Distinguished Civilian Service Award, the National Intelligence Distinguished Public Service Medal, the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the CIA Director's Award, and the Secretary of State's Distinguished Service Award have all been given to Mr. Donilon. Mr. Donilon has served on the boards of the Brookings Institution, the Miller Center of Public Affairs Governing Council, the Aspen Strategy Group, the National Security Advisory Group to the Congressional Leadership, and the Trilateral Commission. His undergraduate education was at Catholic University, and he earned his law degree at the University of Virginia. With his wife, Cathy Russell, and his kids, Sarah and Teddy, he resides in Washington, DC.

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