The Cabinet of the United States is the principal official advisory body to the president of the United States. The Cabinet generally meets with the president in a room adjacent to the Oval Office in the West Wing of the White House. The president chairs the meetings but is not formally a member of the Cabinet. The vice president of the United States serves in the Cabinet by statute. The heads of departments, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, are members of the Cabinet, and acting department heads also participate in Cabinet meetings whether or not they have been officially nominated for Senate confirmation. Members of the Cabinet are political appointees and administratively function their departments. As appointed officers heading federal agencies, these Cabinet Secretaries are bureaucrats with full administrative control over their respective departments. The president may designate heads of other agencies and non-Senate-confirmed members of the Executive Office of the President as members of the Cabinet.
The International Trade Administration (ITA) is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that promotes United States exports of nonagricultural U.S. goods and services.
The director of national intelligence (DNI) is a senior cabinet-level United States government official, required by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to serve as executive head of the United States Intelligence Community (IC) and to direct and oversee the National Intelligence Program (NIP). All 18 IC agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA), report directly to the DNI.
Thomas Alfred Shannon Jr. is an American diplomat who served as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2016 to 2018. In early 2017, Shannon served as acting United States Secretary of State until President Donald Trump's nominee, Rex Tillerson, was confirmed. He was also acting Deputy Secretary of State of the United States until the Senate confirmed President Trump's nominee, John J. Sullivan.
The presidential transition of Barack Obama began when he won the United States presidential election on November 4, 2008, and became the president-elect. Obama was formally elected by the Electoral College on December 15, 2008. The results were certified by a joint session of Congress on January 8, 2009, and the transition ended when Obama was inaugurated on January 20, 2009.
Christopher P. Lu is a Chinese American political advisor who served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations for Management and Reform from 2022 to 2025. He is also an alternative representative to the United Nations General Assembly during his tenure as Representative for Management and Reform. In the Obama administration, Lu served as the United States Deputy Secretary of Labor from 2014 to 2017, the White House Cabinet Secretary and Assistant to the President from 2009 to 2013, and the co-chair of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Lu graduated from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and from Harvard Law School, where he was a classmate of Obama's.
The first 100 days of the Barack Obama presidency began on January 20, 2009, the day Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States. The first 100 days of a presidential term took on symbolic significance during Franklin D. Roosevelt's first term in office, and the period is considered a benchmark to measure the early success of a president. The 100th day of his presidency ended on April 30, 2009. Obama stated that he should not be judged just by his first hundred days: "The first hundred days is going to be important, but it’s probably going to be the first thousand days that makes the difference." Obama began to formally create his presidential footprint during his first 100 days. Obama quickly began attempting to foster support for his economic stimulus package, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The bill passed in the House on January 28, 2009, by a 244–188 vote, and it passed in the Senate on February 10 by a 61–37 margin.
Barack Obama assumed office as the 44th president of the United States on January 20, 2009, and his term ended on January 20, 2017. The president has the authority to nominate members of his Cabinet to the United States Senate for confirmation under the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.
Gary Faye Locke is an American politician, attorney, and former diplomat from the State of Washington. Locke served as the 21st governor of Washington from 1997 to 2005, where he was the first Chinese-American governor as well as the first Asian American governor in the continental U.S. During the Obama administration, Locke served as Secretary of Commerce from 2009 to 2011, and as Ambassador to China from 2011 to 2014, the first Chinese American to serve in the role.
Richard Rahul Verma is an American diplomat, who served as the deputy secretary of state for management and resources, a position he held from April 5, 2023 to January 20, 2025. He served as the assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs from 2009 to 2011, and as the U.S. ambassador to India from 2014 to 2017. He served as the chief legal officer and head of global public policy at Mastercard, from 2020 to 2023, and as the vice chair of the Asia Group from 2017 to 2020, where he oversaw the firm's South Asia practice. He also practiced law for many years at Steptoe & Johnson LLP in Washington DC, and served as a Senior Counselor and Lead of the India and South Asia practice at Albright Stonebridge Group.
Neal Steven Wolin is an American lawyer. He is a vice chairman of the corporate advisory firm Brunswick Group, an equity partner of Data Collective, a board partner of Social Capital, and a limited partner advisor of Nyca Partners. He was the longest-serving Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and also served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury in early 2013.
The National Export Initiative (NEI) is a strategy created by the Obama administration to double U.S. exports between 2010 and the end of 2014 and support 2 million domestic jobs through increased intergovernmental cooperation in export promotion. The initiative was created by Executive Order 13534 after President Barack Obama called for the doubling of U.S. exports in his 2010 State of the Union address.
Stefan M. Selig is an American investment banker, and past Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade at the U.S. Department of Commerce from June 2014 to June 2016. In his role, he was responsible for promoting trade and investment to strengthen the competitiveness of U.S. industry and "improve the global business environment". He advocated for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, negotiated the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and expanded SelectUSA.
Alaina B. Teplitz is an American diplomat who had served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Administration. She served as U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives from 2018 to 2021 and U.S. Ambassador to Nepal from 2015 to 2018. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Career Minister, she joined the State Department in 1991 and is the recipient of numerous Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards.
Robert Francis Cekuta is a career Foreign Service Officer, and served as U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan from February 2015 through March 2018.
Carol Zelis Perez is a career Foreign Service Officer, who previously served as the Director General of the Foreign Service. Perez served as the U.S. Ambassador to Chile from October 2016 to January 2019.
Arun M. Kumar is Managing Partner with Celesta Capital. Kumar is on the board of Indiaspora, an organization that links accomplished and influential people of Indian origin in many countries to be a force for good in enhancing the relationships between their country of residence and India. Kumar has had a long association with the US India Business Council and is an advisor to its board of directors.
Christine E. Wormuth is an American defense official and career civil servant who served as the United States secretary of the Army from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first female United States secretary of the Army.
Donet Dominic Graves Jr. is an American lawyer. He served as Deputy Secretary of Commerce in the Biden administration from 2021 to 2025. Graves formerly led the Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot and served in multiple roles in the Obama administration, including as an advisor to then-Vice President Joe Biden.
Marisa Lago is an American attorney who served as the Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade from 2021 to 2025. She previously served as director of the New York City Department of City Planning and chair of the City Planning Commission from 2017 to 2021. Before that, Lago served as assistant secretary for international markets and development in the United States Department of the Treasury from 2010 to 2017, and as president and chief executive officer of the Empire State Development Corporation from 2008 to 2009.
