Jeffrey Zients
Encyclopedia
Jeffrey "Jeff" D. Zients (born c. 1966) is an American
CEO
, management consultant and entrepreneur
. On July 30, 2010, he was named acting director of the Office of Management & Budget. President Obama
appointed him to the new position of United States Chief Performance Officer
. Confirmed by the Senate
, he is also Deputy Director for Management of the Office of Management and Budget in the federal government of the United States
.
and lives in the Washington, D.C.
area. He and his wife Mary have four children Jonny, Josh, Matt, and Sasha
He graduated in 1984 from St. Albans School
and earned a bachelor's of science degree at Duke University
summa cum laude. Zients worked in management consulting for Mercer Management Consulting and Bain & Company
and then was chief operating officer of DGB Enterprises, a holding company for the Advisory Board Company
, Corporate Executive Board
, and Atlantic Media Company
.
Zients was the chairman (2001–2004), chief executive officer (1998–2000), and chief operating officer (1996–1998) of the Advisory Board Company
and former chairman (2000–2001) of the Corporate Executive Board. Both companies were founded by David G. Bradley
and provide research and advice to corporations around the globe on best practices in management, strategy and operations. Zients and Bradley took each of the companies public through successful initial public offering
s which made both men multimillionaire
s . At age 35, Zients was named to Fortune Magazine's "40 under 40"
with an estimated wealth of $149 million.
Zients also cofounded the Urban Alliance Foundation
.
.
He was a member of the board of directors of XM Satellite Radio
until its 2008 merger. He was a board member at Sirius XM Radio until his Senate confirmation, and also served on the boards of Revolution Health Group
, Best Practices which outsources emergency medical services, and Timbuk2 Designs, a retailer of backpacks, apparel and messenger bags.
back to Washington with venture capitalist Fred Malek
forming the Washington Baseball Club, one of eight or nine groups vying to buy the Washington Nationals
. The club included Colin Powell
, AOL founding CEO James Kinsey
, attorney Vernon Jordan, Darrell Green
formerly of the Washington Redskins, Fannie Mae chairman Franklin Raines
and others. Malek was going to be the managing partner for the first three years when Zients would take over. They came close to owning the team but lost to another group led by the Lerner family.
who withdrew from her nomination to this position in February 2009 to avoid controversy about her personal income taxes. His nomination was approved by the full Senate after a hearing on June 10, 2009 by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee who voted unanimously to approve him.
As the Chief Performance Officer, Zients leads the Obama Administration's "Accountable Government Initiative." Zients outlined the Initiative in a memo to the government's Senior Executive Service
in the fall of 2010. One primary area of focus is reforming how the government buys and manages Information Technology. To bring outside expertise into government, Zients organized a Forum on Modernizing Government at the White House in January 2010 that brought 50 private sector CEOs together with senior government managers and CIOs to discuss best practices in large scale IT project management. This session informed subsequent actions, including ordering a halt on all major government financial system projects until a review was completed to eliminate long-standing problems, reduce costs and accelerate the delivery of functionality to end users. In November 2010, Zients announced an execution plan for overcoming the long-standing structural challenges that plague government IT.
and served as OMB's Acting Director from July 2010 to November 2010.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
CEO
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
, management consultant and entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
. On July 30, 2010, he was named acting director of the Office of Management & Budget. President Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
appointed him to the new position of United States Chief Performance Officer
United States Chief Performance Officer
Chief Performance Officer of the United States is a position in the Office of Management and Budget , first announced on January 7, 2009 by then President-elect Barack Obama. The new post concentrates on the federal budget and government reform...
. Confirmed by the Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
, he is also Deputy Director for Management of the Office of Management and Budget in the federal government of the United States
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
.
Early years
Zients is a native of Kensington, MarylandKensington, Maryland
Kensington is a town in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. The population was 1,873 at the 2000 census. Greater Kensington encompasses the entire 20895 zip code and its population is an order of magnitude larger than that of the town at its center....
and lives in the Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
area. He and his wife Mary have four children Jonny, Josh, Matt, and Sasha
He graduated in 1984 from St. Albans School
St. Albans School (Washington, D.C.)
St. Albans School is an independent college preparatory school for boys in grades 4–12, located in Washington, D.C. The school is named after Saint Alban, traditionally regarded as the first British martyr. Within the St...
and earned a bachelor's of science degree at Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
summa cum laude. Zients worked in management consulting for Mercer Management Consulting and Bain & Company
Bain & Company
Bain & Company is a global management consulting firm headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Bain is considered one of the most prestigious consulting firms in the world, with 47 offices in 30 countries and over 5,500 professionals on staff globally...
and then was chief operating officer of DGB Enterprises, a holding company for the Advisory Board Company
Advisory Board Company
The Advisory Board Company is a global research, consulting, and technology firm partnering with 125,000 leaders in 3,200 organizations across health care and higher education.-History:...
, Corporate Executive Board
Corporate Executive Board
The Corporate Executive Board Company is a for-profit, publicly-traded firm that provides best practices research and analysis to business executives and professionals worldwide. CEB offers benchmarking datasets, decision-support tools, research briefs, and case studies, as well as executive...
, and Atlantic Media Company
Atlantic Media Company
Atlantic Media Company is a print and online media company owned by David G. Bradley and based in the Watergate in Washington, D.C. The company publishes several prominent news magazines and services including The Atlantic and Government Executive and those belonging to its National Journal Group...
.
Zients was the chairman (2001–2004), chief executive officer (1998–2000), and chief operating officer (1996–1998) of the Advisory Board Company
Advisory Board Company
The Advisory Board Company is a global research, consulting, and technology firm partnering with 125,000 leaders in 3,200 organizations across health care and higher education.-History:...
and former chairman (2000–2001) of the Corporate Executive Board. Both companies were founded by David G. Bradley
David G. Bradley
David G. Bradley is the owner of the Atlantic Media Company, which publishes several prominent news magazines and services including The Atlantic Monthly, National Journal, The Hotline and Government Executive...
and provide research and advice to corporations around the globe on best practices in management, strategy and operations. Zients and Bradley took each of the companies public through successful initial public offering
Initial public offering
An initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...
s which made both men multimillionaire
Millionaire
A millionaire is an individual whose net worth or wealth is equal to or exceeds one million units of currency. It can also be a person who owns one million units of currency in a bank account or savings account...
s . At age 35, Zients was named to Fortune Magazine's "40 under 40"
40 under 40 (Fortune Magazine)
Fortune Magazine's 40 under 40 List details the young stars in business across the globe.Mark Zuckerberg topped the 2011 list. Facebook now has over 800 million users.-External links:***...
with an estimated wealth of $149 million.
Zients also cofounded the Urban Alliance Foundation
Urban Alliance Foundation
The Urban Alliance Foundation is a 501 nonprofit operating in Washington, DC. Often referred to as Urban Alliance, or just UA, their mission is to prepare young adults from under-resourced areas in DC for the world of work and a life of self-sufficiency, through education, mentoring, and...
.
Later years
Zients founded and was the managing partner of privately-held Portfolio Logic LLC, an investment firm primarily focused on business services companies, including Pediatrics Services of America, Incorporated doing business as PSA HealthcarePSA Healthcare
Pediatric Services of America, Inc. , is a Delaware Corporation headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, that originated as a respiratory therapy company but now provides comprehensive home health care services. PSA provides comprehensive pediatric home health care services through a network of branch...
.
He was a member of the board of directors of XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio is one of two satellite radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Radio. It provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional...
until its 2008 merger. He was a board member at Sirius XM Radio until his Senate confirmation, and also served on the boards of Revolution Health Group
Revolution Health Group
Revolution Health Group is a United States-based corporation founded in July 2005 by Steve Case, who previously co-founded America Online. Revolution Health’s stated mission is to change healthcare by giving people the tools, information and support to manage their health and wellness...
, Best Practices which outsources emergency medical services, and Timbuk2 Designs, a retailer of backpacks, apparel and messenger bags.
Baseball
In 2005, he worked to bring Major League BaseballMajor League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
back to Washington with venture capitalist Fred Malek
Fred Malek
Frederic Vincent "Fred" Malek is the former President of Marriott Hotels and Northwest Airlines and former assistant to United States Presidents Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush. Malek served as a National Finance Committee co-chair of John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign...
forming the Washington Baseball Club, one of eight or nine groups vying to buy the Washington Nationals
Washington Nationals
The Washington Nationals are a professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C. The Nationals are a member of the Eastern Division of the National League of Major League Baseball . The team moved into the newly built Nationals Park in 2008, after playing their first three seasons in RFK Stadium...
. The club included Colin Powell
Colin Powell
Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...
, AOL founding CEO James Kinsey
James Kinsey
James Kinsey was an American lawyer from Burlington, New Jersey.Kinsey was born in Philadelphia on March 22, 1731. He attended the common schools, studied law, was admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1753 and practiced in the courts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with residence in Burlington...
, attorney Vernon Jordan, Darrell Green
Darrell Green
Darrell Ray Green is a former American football cornerback in the National Football League who played for the Washington Redskins from 1983 to 2002. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest cornerbacks to ever play football...
formerly of the Washington Redskins, Fannie Mae chairman Franklin Raines
Franklin Raines
Franklin Delano "Frank" Raines is an American business executive. He is the former chairman and chief executive officer of the Federal National Mortgage Association, commonly known as Fannie Mae, who served as White House budget director under President Bill Clinton...
and others. Malek was going to be the managing partner for the first three years when Zients would take over. They came close to owning the team but lost to another group led by the Lerner family.
Chief performance officer
Zients has twenty years business experience and specializes in advising companies on business practices. According to Obama, his assignment is to help “streamline processes, cut costs, and find best practices throughout" the U.S. government. Zients replaced Nancy KilleferNancy Killefer
Nancy Killefer is an American government consultant and political figure. She was nominated for the Chief Performance Officer presidential cabinet position in the Obama administration in 2009. In 2005 the District of Columbia government had filed a more than $900 tax lien on her home for failure...
who withdrew from her nomination to this position in February 2009 to avoid controversy about her personal income taxes. His nomination was approved by the full Senate after a hearing on June 10, 2009 by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee who voted unanimously to approve him.
As the Chief Performance Officer, Zients leads the Obama Administration's "Accountable Government Initiative." Zients outlined the Initiative in a memo to the government's Senior Executive Service
Senior Executive Service
The Senior Executive Service is a paygrade in the civil service of the United States federal government, somewhat analogous to the ranks of general or admiral in the U.S. armed forces...
in the fall of 2010. One primary area of focus is reforming how the government buys and manages Information Technology. To bring outside expertise into government, Zients organized a Forum on Modernizing Government at the White House in January 2010 that brought 50 private sector CEOs together with senior government managers and CIOs to discuss best practices in large scale IT project management. This session informed subsequent actions, including ordering a halt on all major government financial system projects until a review was completed to eliminate long-standing problems, reduce costs and accelerate the delivery of functionality to end users. In November 2010, Zients announced an execution plan for overcoming the long-standing structural challenges that plague government IT.
Deputy Director for Management (DDM)
In his role as DDM, Zients chairs the President’s Management CouncilPresident’s Management Council
The President’s Management Council is an executive branch reform group in the United States. Although established by the Administration of President Bill Clinton in 1993, the concept for this council, and its purpose, has existed in various forms since the Reagan administration...
and served as OMB's Acting Director from July 2010 to November 2010.
External links
- Profile at the Office of Management and Budget