Deputy Secretary of the Treasury
On March 26, 2021, Wally Adeyemo was sworn in as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. He has been at the center of many of the country’s major economic policy decisions since the 2008 Financial Crisis and has worked in organizations across the public, private, and non-profit sectors to build a stronger and fairer economy.
As Deputy Secretary, Adeyemo serves as the Treasury Department’s number two official and chief operating officer. Adeyemo has taken a leading role in Treasury’s national security and economic inequality work, and implementation of some of the Biden Administration’s top policy priorities, while supporting the Secretary in driving the Department’s fundamental mission: promoting economic growth and ensuring the financial security of the United States.
Adeyemo was responsible for Treasury’s implementation of the American Rescue Plan, which ensured federal resources reached underserved communities and led to the most broad-based economic recovery in U.S. history. Adeyemo also oversees Treasury’s implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, which is the most significant investment in the economy, energy security, and climate change in a generation, as well as the biggest effort in decades to increase tax fairness and reduce the deficit. This is Adeyemo’s second tour at the Treasury Department. His first began in the early days of the Obama Administration, during the depths of the Great Recession. Rising through a variety of leadership roles at Treasury, Adeyemo became Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff under Secretary Tim Geithner and Secretary Jack Lew.
From 2015 to 2017, Adeyemo served in the Obama White House as Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economics and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council. He also served as President Obama’s representative to the G7 and G20.
Adeyemo also served as the first Chief of Staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was founded after the financial crisis to protect Americans from unfair, deceptive, or abusive consumer financial practices
After leaving government in 2017, Adeyemo served as the first president of the Obama Foundation, where he worked with the former president and first lady to help them continue giving back to the country as private citizens. Adeyemo also served as a Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and at BlackRock.
Adeyemo was previously a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, which promotes widespread economic opportunity and the competitiveness of America. He also served on the boards of Demos, a New York-based think tank focused on social, political, and economic equity issues; the 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.
Born in Ibadan, Nigeria, Adeyemo immigrated to California’s Inland Empire as young child with his parents, an educator and a nurse. He attended the University of California, Berkeley and Yale Law School.