The Economic Club of Washington, D.C. hosted an interview with David Rubenstein and The Honorable Brian Deese, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council.
In his current role, Mr. Deese advises President Biden on domestic and international economic policy and coordinates the administration’s economic agenda. He has been a principal architect of the President’s economic agenda, including the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act. Mr. Deese has spearheaded the Administration’s effort to develop and integrate a modern industrial strategy into the Administration’s economic policy – with a focus on accelerating the clean energy transition, increasing energy security, bolstering the resilience of domestic supply chains, and promoting U.S. manufacturing.
Prior to this, Mr. Deese was Global Head of Sustainable Investing at BlackRock, an American multinational investment management corporation based in New York City. At BlackRock he worked to drive greater focus on climate and sustainability risk in investment portfolios and create investment strategies to help accelerate the low‐carbon transition. A former Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama, Mr. Deese was instrumental both in engineering the rescue of the U.S. auto industry in 2009 and in negotiating the landmark Paris Climate Agreement in 2015. During the Obama‐Biden Administration, he also served as Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council. He received his BA from Middlebury College and his JD from Yale Law School.
