United States President-elect, Joe Biden, is set to announce a Nigerian-born lawyer, Adewale ‘Wally’ Adeyemo, as deputy Treasury secretary, website, Politico reported on Sunday November 29.
According to the reports, Adeyemo’s appointment is one of many key cabinet positions Biden is expected to announce in the coming days as he prepares to start his White House tenure.
Adeyemo, a former senior international economic adviser during the Obama administration, will serve under former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, who Biden will reportedly appoint to lead the US Treasury Department.
Born in Nigeria, Adeyemo was raised in California where he obtained a bachelor’s degree before proceeding to Yale Law School.
Before his appointment into the Obama administration, Adeyemo worked as an editor at the Hamilton Project, then served as senior advisor and deputy chief of staff to Jack Lew in the United States Department of Treasury.
He later worked as the chief negotiator for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and also served as the first chief of staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under former presidential candidate, Elizabeth Warren.
In 2015, he was appointed to concurrently serve as Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics and deputy director of the National Economic Council.
In 2019, Adeyemo was made the head of Obama Foundation.
When appointed, the 39 year old Nigerian would have occupied the highest level a Nigerian-American has reached in the USA Government in the 244 years history of the United States of America.