Obama Names Killefer as Chief Performance Officer

by Jordan Yerman | January 7, 2009 at 09:17 am

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President-elect Barack Obama is creating a new cabinet position: Chief Performance Officer. The position will be filled by Nancy Killefer, who previously served as assistant Secretary of the Treasury from 1997-2000, and led the overhaul of the Internal Revenue Service. This coincides with the estimate of the US budget deficit reaching $1.186 trillion.

Currently, Ms Killefer is a senior director at McKinsey & Company, a management consultancy that contracts to the US government.

Killefer, a director at McKinsey & Company and a former assistant secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton administration, will work with economic officials to increase efficiences and eliminate waste in government spending. The US budget deficit is projected to swell to a record $1.186 trillion in fiscal 2009.

"Change and reform can't just be election-year slogans," he said. Instead, they must be a "fundamental principle of government."

Mr. Obama warned, as he has repeatedly since winning the White House Nov. 4, that more tough times are ahead for the economy. He noted the new Congressional Budget Office estimate that the deficit will be $1.2 trillion, and said his economic stimulus plan would "add more."