Valerie Jarrett

Valerie Bowman Jarrett ( born November 14, 1956 in Shiraz, Iran) is an American lawyer, businesswoman and politician. She became famous as a long-standing adviser to the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama. Until the advent of the Obama administration, she worked as a chairman of the transition team Obama - Biden Transition Project. Since 20 January 2009 she directs the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, the Liaison Office of the White House to the states and municipalities.

Private life

Jarrett was born as Valerie Bowman in Shiraz Iran, where her father, Dr. James Bowman, under a development assistance program led a children's hospital. At the age of five years, the family moved to London in 1963 and returned back to Chicago. Her father is African- American descent and emeritus professor of pathology and medicine at the University of Chicago. Her great-grandfather was the first African American who finished a degree at MIT, her grandfather the first black at the tip of the Chicago Housing Authority.

After graduation in 1974 at a boarding school in New England ( Northfield Mount Hermon ) Jarrett scored 1978 at the Stanford University a B. A. in psychology and in 1981 at the University of Michigan, a JD. She also speaks Persian and French.

Jarrett was 1983-1988 married to William Robert Jarrett. You have a daughter.

Professional life

Jarrett began her political career in 1987 as an employee of the mayor of Chicago, Harold Washington. In the 1990s, she was deputy chief of staff of Mayor Richard M. Daley in 1991 and introduced Michelle Robinson, then a friend of Barack Obama, a. Jarrett was also active in 1992 to 1995 as Assistant for Planning and Development ( Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development ). From 1995 to 2005 she held the Presidency of the Chicago Transit Board. Since 1995, Jarrett worked as a business woman in particular for the Wohnungsbauunternehemen The Habitat Company, most recently as CEO.

Valerie Jarrett is a member of the management committee of the German Marshall Fund.