Today, President Obama announced his intent to nominate Christopher P. Lu as deputy secretary of Labor, making him the first Asian American to be nominated to a deputy secretaryship during this administration.
Obama picks his first Asian American deputy secretary of cabinet department
Lu, who served in the White House as Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary from 2009 to 2013, would replace deputy secretary Seth Harris, who had been in the position since 2009.
Here's more on Chris Lu, from the White House's press release:
Christopher P. Lu, Nominee for Deputy Secretary, Department of LaborLu would be only the second Asian American deputy secretary of a cabinet department in history. (Elaine Chao, former deputy secretary of Transportation in the first Bush administration, was the first.)
Christopher P. Lu is a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, and in 2013, he was also a fellow at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy. From 2009 to 2013, Mr. Lu served in the White House as Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary. Previously, in 2008, he served as Executive Director of the Obama-Biden Transition Project. From 2005 to 2008, Mr. Lu served as Legislative Director and then as Acting Chief of Staff for U.S. Senator Barack Obama. From 1997 to 2005, Mr. Lu was Deputy Chief Counsel of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (Minority Staff). He began his career as a law clerk to Judge Robert E. Cowen on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and as an attorney at Sidley Austin. Mr. Lu was Co-Chair of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders from 2011 to 2013. He received an A.B. from Princeton University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Here's an interview from November: Interview: Chris Lu Reflects on Policy, Politics, and the Road Ahead