Obama Appoints A Nigerian, Adewale Adeyemo As Deputy NationalSecurity Adviser

President Barack Obama has tapped
Adewale “Wally” Adeyemo, who served in top roles at the Treasury Department, to succeed Caroline Atkinson as his deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs.
Ms. Atkinson has served in her current post
since June 2013, a position that

includes
coordinating U.S. participation in the
annual summits of the Group of 20 and
Group of Seven countries. Ms. Atkinson
also played key roles in the recently
concluded climate negotiations in Paris and
in pushing the White House’s trade
agenda, including the Trans-Pacific
Partnership trade agreement.
Mr. Adeyemo, 34, joined the White
House’s National Economic Council as
deputy director this fall from the Treasury,
where he served most recently as the
deputy chief of staff to Secretary Jacob
Lew. He was the Treasury’s lead negotiator
on the currency agreement that was part
of the Pacific trade deal.
Mr. Adeyemo also worked on Treasury’s
response to crises in Ukraine and Greece
and in 2010 was one of the first officials
charged with standing up the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau.
In a statement, Mr. Obama thanked Ms.
Atkinson for her service and said he was
grateful that Mr. Adeyemo would carry on
her work. Mr. Adeyemo had been
nominated by Mr. Obama to serve as
assistant Treasury secretary for
international markets and development, but a White House official said Mr. Adeyemo had asked the president to withdraw the nomination given his new role.
Mr. Lew said that Mr. Adeyemo had
“developed a network of international
relationships in economic offices around
the world to promote U.S. interests
effectively.”
Former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner
said Mr. Adeyemo, who joined the
administration in 2009, was a “natural
diplomat with a great feel for policy.”
The position has served as a springboard to
even higher profile international finance
posts. Michael Froman, who is currently
the U.S. trade representative, held the
post under both Mr. Obama and President
Bill Clinton.Federal Reserve governor Lael
Brainard, who previously served as a senior
Treasury official in the Obama
administration, held the post in the
Clinton administration.