Counselor to the President – no confirmation needed

by Deedra Abboud in Political

December 28, 2020 • 2 comments

Steve Ricchetti has been named as the Counselor to the President in the incoming Biden administration.

The position: Provides strategic advice to the president.

Steven J. Ricchetti grew up in Westlake, Ohio and graduated from Westlake High School.He received his undergraduate degree from Miami University in Ohio (where he served as student body president) in 1979, and his J.D. from the George Mason University School of Law.

Ricchetti led the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association’s political department from 1987 to 1989 and was executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 1990 to 1992.

From January 1993 to February 1996, he was a White House staffer in the Clinton administration, holding the title of Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs. In this role, Ricchetti was President Clinton’s principal liaison to the Senate. Ricchetti conducted work for the administration on the economic recovery act of 1993, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and other legislation.

From 1996 to 1998, Ricchetti was in the private sector, engaged in lobbying for clients at the governmental relations firm Public Strategies Washington (PSW).

In January 1999, Ricchetti became deputy White House chief of staff (succeeding John Podesta).In 2000, Ricchetti was appointed to President Clinton’s task force on China PNTR (permanent normalized trade relations) during the president’s last year.

In January 2001, Ricchetti founded and ran Ricchetti, Inc., a government relations (lobbying) and political consulting firm, with his brother Jeff Ricchetti.Over the following years, Ricchetti’s firm represented a number of clients, including AT&T, Eli Lilly & Co., the American Hospital Association, United Technologies, the American Council of Life Insurers and the American Bankers Association.

Ricchetti is on the board of advisors of the Center for Congress at Indiana University.

He formerly served on the boards of the Center for American Progress, Trust for the National Mall, and Bloomberg Government before stepping down from those positions to take a post in Biden’s office as Counselor to the Vice President in March 2012.

In December 2013, Ricchetti succeeded Bruce Reed as chief of staff to the vice president, with the rank of Assistant to the President.Ricchetti chaired Biden’s presidential campaign in the 2020 elections, leading the campaign’s efforts to raise funds from Wall Street financiers.

Ricchetti lives in McLean, Virginia. He is married to his wife Amy and has four children.