The Kogod School of Business sits at the unrivaled crossroads of government and business. Located on AU’s 90-acre campus in Washington, DC, Kogod students boast close ties both to a major world business hub and the hub of the US government.
The school’s proximity offers a wealth of opportunities, particularly at a time when hiring managers covet candidates with joint private and public sector experience, as a top Biden administration official says.
“I think we need more business people in government,” said Jeff Zients, White House chief of staff, speaking to students, faculty, and staff during an October 1 visit to campus.
“I think it takes a certain type of business person,” Zients continued. “More collaborative. Very focused on building teams, and how you manage teams, set priorities, and hold each other accountable.”
The fact that Zients was even on campus speaks volumes about AU’s prime location in our nation’s capital.
Mere minutes before sitting down for the fireside chat moderated by Kogod Dean David Marchick, Zients had departed the White House, where he’d played a key role in discussions over the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and the federal response to Hurricane Helene.
But Zients is no stranger to seamless transitions.
After all, he’s seen firsthand the opportunities afforded to someone well-versed in both business and government, having personally brought norm-breaking perspective to a variety of roles in the executive branch.
Zients’ two-decade career saw him serve as chairman, CEO, and COO of The Advisory Board, and as chairman of the Corporate Executive Board. He’s a co-founder of The Urban Alliance Foundation, a non-profit that partners with corporations to provide economically disadvantaged youth with job training.
More recently, though, Zients—a Northwest DC native himself—has been an influential member of recent Democratic presidential administrations.
During the Obama administration, he served as director of the National Economic Council and acting director of the Office of Management and Budget.
In the mid-2010s, he was tasked with spearheading the technical turnaround of the Healthcare.gov website, a critical customer-facing apparatus set up through the Affordable Care Act.
Yet years after the pomp and circumstance of the law’s signing faded, Zients faced a challenging task in fixing early glitches in the website, which threatened public perception of former president Barack Obama’s signature political achievement—something current president Joe Biden once infamously celebrated with candor.
“That ‘big effing deal’ almost fell apart—we wouldn’t have any of these benefits today because of a lousy website,” Zients recalled, invoking then-Vice President Biden’s 2010 hot-mic moment.
But the website’s problems and the path to fixing it reinforced for Zients the importance of not just passing a bill but also bringing the law to fruition.
“That highlights the importance of election, implementation, leadership, and operations in government,” he told the AU audience.
Zients has set out to change the perception that government jobs are cumbersome to land and believes the federal government must improve its recruitment and retention strategies to retain top talent.
“It takes too long to get a job in the federal government, and we have to streamline that,” he said.