{mosads}Obama called Donilon “one of the most effective national security advisers our country has ever had” in announcing his departure last month.
“Tom is that rare combination of the strategic and the tactical,” Obama said. “He has a strategic sense of where we need to go, and he has a tactical sense of how to get there.”
Donilon previously served as assistant to the president and principal deputy national security adviser under Obama. He got his start in government under President Jimmy Carter in 1977 and later served as assistant secretary of state for public affairs and chief of staff at the State Department during the Clinton administration. Before joining the Obama administration, Donilon was a partner in the Washington office of the law firm O’Melveny & Myers.
Donilon is married to Jill Biden’s chief of staff, Catherine Russell, and his brother Mike is counselor to Vice President Biden. Another brother, Terrence, is communications director for Boston Archbishop Sean O’Malley.
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