Please join Fels for a virtual conversation with Wally Adeyemo, President of the Obama Foundation. Wally works closely with current Foundation leadership to manage the Foundation’s day-to-day operations, helping to implement the organization’s overall strategic goals and vision.
Wally Adeyemo served as a senior advisor at BlackRock and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has spent most of his career convening companies, governments, and organizations to move together toward achieving common goals. As Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economics and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, he served as President Barack Obama’s senior international economic adviser and was responsible for coordinating the policymaking process related to international finance, trade and investment, energy, and environmental issues. Adeyemo also served as the President’s representative to the G7 and G20 and held several senior management positions at the US Department of the Treasury, including senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, and as chief negotiator for the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s provisions on macroeconomic policy.
In addition to his work on macro-economic policy, Adeyemo also served as the first chief of staff at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). In that capacity, he helped to build the bureau’s initial executive leadership team and served as a member of the CFPB Executive Committee, helping to protect American consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive consumer financial practices.
Adeyemo is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, which promotes widespread economic opportunity and the competitiveness of America. He also serves on several boards: Demos, a New York-based think tank focused on social, political, and economic equity issues; Golden State Opportunity Foundation, which works to provide financial security to low-income working people throughout California; and Just Homes, a faith-based affordable housing initiative based in Washington, DC.
Adeyemo holds a BA from the University of California at Berkeley and a JD from Yale Law School.
About the series:
The Public Policy in Practice Series, led by Fels Distinguished Fellow Elizabeth Vale, is designed to provide students with a variety of perspectives and compelling personal narratives that will help them not only form their opinions on important issues but will also help shape their careers. This series is offered in conjunction with the Fels graduate Public Management course required of all Fels MPA and Executive MPA students. Fels is proud to offer these important conversations to the entire Penn community and members of the public.
