Pelosi’s chief of staff stepping down

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will see her longtime aide and chief of staff Nadeam Elshami step down later this month as he prepares to take a new role at a top business consulting firm.

Elshami will leave in a few weeks to take a job as an executive vice president with the SIGNAL Group, and he is expected to be heavily involved in the firm’s communications and lobbying efforts in Congress. The move was first reported in Politico’s Playbook.

Elshami has worked for Pelosi for more than a decade and has spent 25 years working on Capitol Hill, starting in the mailroom. Other former employers include top Democrats such as Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.) and former Sen. Barbara Boxer (Calif.).

{mosads}“Nadeam’s deep insight and effectiveness has been a vital part of our Caucus’ unity throughout his time as Chief of Staff, especially during critical battles to protect the Affordable Care Act, Wall Street Reform and other landmark progress for working families,” Pelosi told Politico in a statement.

Elshami will be replaced as the top House Democrat’s chief aide by Danny Weiss, who currently serves as vice president for federal policy at Common Sense Media. Weiss previously served as chief of staff to another former California lawmaker, former Rep. George Miller (D).

Elshami previously told Politico in 2013 that when he took the job he never would have dreamed that he would make it from the congressional mailroom all the way to the top spot on the team for the most powerful Democrat in the House.

“If you would have asked me 21 years ago when I was pushing that mail cart around Russell, ‘Do you ever think you’ll be the chief of staff for the Democratic leader of the House?’ I would have said you were dreaming,” Elshami said at the time.