Hackett was named executive director of CRS in July 1993, and was appointed president in 2003. During his tenure, he started a division focusing on outreach to Catholic dioceses, parishes, organizations, and colleges, and laypeople were first appointed to the CRS board of directors. The organization’s budget—which despite the word “Catholic” comes not from the Church but from governments and private donors—nearly doubled under Hackett, who retired in December 2011.   read more

President Barack Obama has nominated one of his top fundraisers to serve as the next ambassador to Denmark. Rufus Gifford, who most recently served as finance chair of the Presidential Inaugural Committee, raised millions for Obama’s two presidential runs, especially among the gay community, where he and his former partner were dubbed “Obama's Gay Gold Mine” in 2008.   read more

Emerson finally backed a winner in 1992, when he was Bill Clinton’s California campaign manager. He was rewarded with a White House job, serving from 1993 to 1997 as deputy assistant to President Clinton. A wealthy man, Emerson has donated $225,000 to Democratic candidates and organizations since 1992, and bundled donations from others for Barack Obama to the tune of at least $500,000 in 2012.   read more

Costos migrated to film and television, working as a senior executive of Revolution Studios in charge of corporate partnerships and promotions from 2002 to 2004. He then founded Eight Cylinders Inc, an entertainment marketing firm. In July 2006, HBO hired Costos to head its new global licensing and marketing division. Costos is in a long-term relationship with interior designer Michael Smith, who was selected by Michelle Obama in 2009 to redecorate the residential quarters of the White House.   read more

Ayalde served two consecutive stints as a USAID mission director, first in Bolivia from 1999 to 2005, and then in Colombia from 2005 to 2008. Ayalde left USAID in 2008 to serve as ambassador to Paraguay from June 2008 to 2011, returning to Washington to serve as deputy assistant secretary in the State Department's Western Hemisphere Affairs Bureau, beginning July 16, 2012.   read more

Eight Americans were selected from 6,100 candidates, the second largest pool of applicants in NASA’s history. A mix of scientists and military pilots, the group of four men and four women will begin training for future space missions that may include trips to an asteroid and Mars.   read more

Serving as State Department spokesperson since May 2011, Nuland played a major role in editing the administration “talking points” in the aftermath of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, last year. Nevertheless, recent praise for her nomination from key Senate Republicans. Nuland served and as principal deputy national security advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney from 2003 to 2005. She is married to neoconservative writer Robert Kagan.   read more

From 2006 to 2009, he was counselor for management affairs at the embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and chargé d’affaires ad interim, and from 2009 to 2011, he was chargé d’affaires and deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Since 2011, Mushingi has served as deputy executive secretary and executive director of the Executive Office of the Secretary of State. Mushingi bears an unusual resemblance to President Obama.   read more

Padalino practiced law in El Paso at Kemp Smith LLP from 2003 to 2009, representing rural water districts, litigating commercial cases and handling appeals in state and federal appellate courts. He also took leave from his law practice in 2008 to volunteer as a field organizer for Obama for America in Texas. From 2009 to 2012, Padalino served in a number of positions at USDA, including chief of staff for USDA Rural Development Under Secretary Dallas Tonsager.   read more

In one instance, a senior manager pushed for three of his college-age children to be hired for department internships last year. The unnamed official, who worked in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, contacted 12 colleagues, including a high-ranking human capital official, to encourage the hiring of his three kids. But the family lobbying paid off—all three of the children got jobs in DOE.   read more

Although Comey donated more than $7,000 during the 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, his money went to Obama's Republican opponents, Arizona Sen. John McCain and Mitt Romney. But Comey became a political hero on the moderate Left in January 2006, when reports surfaced regarding his role two years previously in averting a constitutional crisis by forcing the George W. Bush White House to accept certain changes to its warrantless wiretapping program.   read more

President Barack Obama has turned to a career diplomat with extensive experience in Africa to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to the troubled nation of Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa. James F. Entwistle, who has been ambassador to the even more troubled Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since November 2010, will succeed Terence P. McCulley.   read more

The revolving door between big business and government is spinning again. Despite his promise during the 2008 campaign that lobbyists would take a back seat in his administration, President Barack Obama recently nominated a long-time telecommunications lobbyist—who has also donated and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for his campaigns—to serve as the next chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the agency that plays the principle role in regulating the telecom industry.   read more

Former political advisers Robert Gibbs, Jim Messina and David Plouffe received five-figure checks to speak at a forum in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, which is trying to win news friends in Washington. Messina, who was Obama’s 2012 campaign manager, has started his own consulting firm that will count “Team Obama” as its primary client.   read more

Johnson became president of Progress Energy in 2005, and worked as chairman and CEO from 2007 to 2012, when the company was bought by Duke Energy. Although the Duke-Progress Energy merger agreement named Johnson CEO of the new combined company, the new corporate board, dominated by Duke Energy members, fired him less than an hour after the merger closed, allowing him to walk away with a $44 million severance payment for one hour's work. He had been paid $9.5 million by Progress in 2011.   read more

Thompson worked at the Census Bureau from 1975 to 2002. Leaving government service for the private sector in 2002, he joined the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago, serving as executive vice president from 2002 to 2008, and as president and CEO since 2008.   read more