Nigerian-American, 39-year-old Adeyemo, gets slot in Biden’s govt. as Deputy Treasury Secretary

A 39-year-old, Mr Adewale “Wally” Adeyemo, a Nigerian-born attorney and former senior international economic adviser in the Barack Obama administration, will serve as Deputy Treasury Secretary under former Federal Reserve Chair, Janet Yellen, who Biden plans to appoint to lead the Treasury Department.

Adeyemo will be the first Nigerian-American to serve at the highest level in the U.S. Government in the 244-year history of the country. His expertise include Economics, Global Economic Governance and Economics Program.

Wally Adeyemo has spent his career working with organizations that are at the intersection of public policy, the private sector, and nonprofits that are focused on creating economic opportunity.

He currently serves as the President of the Obama Foundation and provides advice on business strategy, macroeconomic policy, and geopolitics to the CSIS Economics Program.

He also advises policymakers, business leaders, and nonprofits on a range of topics including economic development, trade and investment, and on strategies to address economic inequality.

Appointed as deputy national security advisor and deputy director of the National Economic Council by President Obama in 2015, Wally served as the President’s Senior International Economic Advisor.

He was responsible for coordinating the policymaking process on international finance, trade and investment, energy, and environmental issues. He also served as the president’s representative to the G7 and G20. Prior to this, Wally held several management positions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, including senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, as well as chief negotiator for the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s provisions on macroeconomic policy.

Wally also served as the first chief of staff at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In that capacity, he helped to hire the bureau’s initial executive leadership team and build an agency devoted to protecting U.S. consumers.

He is a member of several boards and organizations including the Aspen Strategy Group, the board of Demos, and the board of the Golden State Opportunity Foundation. Wally, a graduate of University of California, Berkeley and Yale Law School, was raised East of Los Angeles, California.