OMB Director's Office
OMB Home

The Director of OMB is Jacob J. Lew
The Deputy Director of OMB is Sylvia Mathews
The Deputy Director for Management of OMB is Sally Katzen
The Executive Associate Director of OMB is Joshua Gotbaum

The budget and review functions in OMB report directly to the Director and the Deputy Director, while the management and regulatory responsibilities are normally under the supervision of the Deputy Director for Management. The Executive Associate Director has responsibility for a range of cross-cutting issues on both budget and management issues.


Jacob J. Lew
Director
Office of Management and Budget

Jack Lew served as Deputy Director of OMB from August 1995, Acting Director of OMB from May 1998, and was confirmed as Director of OMB on July 31, 1998. As OMB's Director he is responsible for coordinating Administration efforts on management, budget, and appropriations related matters, and he works closely with the White House on the development of Administration policy.

Prior to becoming Deputy Director of OMB, Mr. Lew held positions as OMB's Executive Associate Director and Associate Director for Legislative Affairs. As Special Assistant to the President from February 1993 through October 1994, Mr. Lew was responsible for policy development and the drafting of the national service initiative and health care reform legislation.

Mr. Lew began his career in Washington in 1973 as a legislative aide, and became a principal domestic policy advisor to the late House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, Jr., in 1979. He spent nearly eight years at the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee as Assistant Director and then Executive Director.

Mr. Lew has also served as an attorney in private practice for five years, Executive Director of the Center for Middle East Research, Issues Director for the Democratic National Committee's Campaign 88, and Deputy Director of the Office of Program Analysis in the city of Boston's Office of Management and Budget.

Mr. Lew was born in New York, New York, on August 29, 1955. A member of the bar in the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, he graduated from Harvard College in 1978 and earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law School in 1983. He is married and has two children.


Sylvia M. Mathews
Deputy Director
Office of Management And Budget

Sylvia M. Mathews was confirmed as Deputy Director of OMB by the Senate on October 21, 1998. As Deputy Director, she works with the Director and the White House on development of Administration policy, and is responsible for coordinating Administration efforts on budget and appropriations matters, as well as other legislative and management issues.

Prior to OMB, Ms. Mathews was appointed Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff to the President in January 1997. She supervised the work of several White House offices, including the National Economic Council, the Domestic Policy Council, Public Liaison, Staff Secretary, Intergovernmental Affairs, Council on Environmental Quality, Press, Cabinet Secretary, and Communications. In addition to overseeing these offices, Ms. Mathews helped review staff recommendations and managed the flow of information from them to the President of the United States. Ms. Mathews had responsibility for several special projects ranging from Presidential State of the Union Addresses (1997 and 1998) to the President's historic trip to Africa.

Before her appointment as Deputy Chief of Staff, Ms. Mathews served as Chief of Staff to Secretary of the Treasury, Robert E. Rubin, from 1995-1997. In this position, she advised the Secretary on foreign and domestic policy, management and communications issues, and she helped implement the Secretary's priorities throughout the Department. She also shared day-to-day responsibilities with the Deputy Secretary and served as the Secretary's liaison to the White House and other government agencies.

Ms. Mathews first joined the Clinton Administration in December 1992 as the manager of the President-elect's Economic Transition Team. In January 1993, she became Staff Director for the National Economic Council and Special Assistant to Robert E. Rubin, then Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. Her responsibilities included advising Mr. Rubin on economic and long-term planning issues, working closely with senior White House and Administration officials, and overseeing the day-to-day work of the NEC staff.

Before joining the Federal government, Ms. Mathews worked in the private sector for McKinsey and Company management consulting firm. From November 1990 to July 1992 she was an associate with McKinsey in New York, where she performed analytical research, primarily in the areas of finance and telecommunications.

Ms. Mathews was the Deputy Director of Economic Policy for the 1992 Clinton/Gore campaign. As a researcher on the 1988 Dukakis/Bentsen presidential campaign, she fact checked debate preparation materials. She was a Governor's aide for Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, and served as a Lyndon B. Johnson Intern for Congressman Nick Rahall.

Ms. Mathews graduated cum laude from Harvard University with an A.B. in Government in June 1987. She was a recipient of the Harvard College Aggassiz Scholarship and Institute of Balkan Studies Harvard Fellowship, and was a Harvard Club of New York Scholar. As a Rhodes Scholar, she received an honors degree (B.A.) in philosophy, politics, and economics in June 1990 from Oxford University in Oxford, England. Ms. Mathews is from Hinton, West Virginia.


Sally Katzen
Deputy Director for Management

Sally Katzen currently serves as the Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget. Previously, she has served in the Clinton Administration as the Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council (1998-1999), and as the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in OMB (1993-1998). She served in the Carter Administration as General Counsel (1979-1980) and then as Deputy Director for Program Policy (1980-1981) of the Council on Wage and Price Stability in the Executive Office of the President.

Prior to joining the Clinton Administration, Ms. Katzen was a partner in the Washington, DC, law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, specializing in regulatory and legislative matters. She has worked extensively in the field of administrative law, both in her law practice and in professional activities. In 1988, she was elected Chair of the Section on Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice of the American Bar Association; she has held various other offices in the ABA, including serving two terms as a DC Delegate to the House of Delegates. She served as a Public Member and Vice-Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States, and she has taught Administrative Law as an Adjunct professor at Georgetown Law Center. In 1990, she was elected president of the Federal Communications Bar Association. She also served as president of the Women's Legal Defense Fund (1976-1977).

Ms. Katzen was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and graduated magna cum laude from Smith College and the University of Michigan Law School, where she was the Editor-in-Chief of the Michigan Law Review. Following graduation from law school, she clerked for Judge J. Skelly Wright of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Ms. Katzen is married to Judge Timothy B. Dyk and they have one child, who is 18 years old and will be starting college at the University of Pennsylvania his fall.


Joshua Gotbaum
Executive Associate Director & Controller
Office Of Management & Budget

Joshua Gotbaum joined OMB as Executive Associate Director in 1997. He is part of OMB=s senior management team, with the Director, the Deputy Director, and the Deputy Director for Management. In 1999, he was also confirmed by the Senate as Controller.

At OMB, Mr. Gotbaum has assumed responsibility for a range of cross-cutting issues on both budget and management issues. This has included regulatory matters; assistance to the government of Colombia and post-hurricane assistance to Central America; tobacco policies; privatization, programs to counter the threat of domestic terrorism, and health and veterans programs. As Controller, he directs the Office of Federal Financial Management and is responsible for policy and programs affecting the Government's financial management and systems, including its annual financial reporting and audits. He has also been responsible for recruitment of senior OMB officials and participates in general agency management decisions.

Mr. Gotbaum has broad experience both in business and government. Immediately prior to joining OMB, Mr. Gotbaum served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy. He advised Secretary Rubin on economic effects of tax and budget proposals and a range of other issues, including Social Security, economic development, financial institutions and government regulation. Before that, Mr. Gotbaum was the Assistant Secretary for Economic Security at the Department of Defense. In that position, he was both a liaison to business and DoD's primary adviser on matters pertaining to the defense industry. He also coordinated DoD's 1995 base closures and was responsible for streamlining economic development and reuse at closing bases.

Until 1994, Mr. Gotbaum was general partner with the New York investment bank, Lazard Frères & Co. Over 13 years, he gave financial advice and assistance to corporations, trade unions and governments in North America and Europe on corporate finance, mergers/acquisitions, bankruptcies and restructurings. Among the transactions on which he worked were the leveraged acquisition of Avis Europe, employee buyouts of Weirton Steel and United Airlines, and acquisitions and/or restructuring in steel, transportation, chemicals, electronics and entertainment industries. He became a general partner in 1990, and was based in London as a managing director of Lazard Frères & Co., Ltd. from 1989-1992.

During the Carter Administration, Mr. Gotbaum was Associate Director for Economics of the White House Domestic Policy Staff; Executive Assistant to Alfred Kahn, President Carter's advisor on inflation; on the staff of the White House Office of Energy, Policy & Planning, and of the Department of Energy. Before joining Lazard Frères in 1981, he served as legislative assistant to U.S. Senator Gary Hart for economic and budget matters.

Mr. Gotbaum holds graduate degrees from the Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Law School, and an A.B. from Stanford.

Josh was raised in Evanston, Illinois, and Westchester County, NY, and now lives in Washington, D.C. He is married to Joyce Thornhill, a former banker and full-time homemaker. They have three children, Emma, Adam and J ordan. In what used to be his spare time, he was a singer.

Privacy Statement

The Budget Legislative Information Management Reform/GPRA Grants Management Financial Management Procurement Policy Information & Regulatory Policy Contact the White House Web Master

Help

Site Map

Graphic Version

T H E   W H I T E   H O U S E