John Podesta is a veteran Democratic official. He was Counselor to the President of the United States, serving since the start of 2014. He left the White House to join Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Presidential campaign, as its chairman.

He was the fourth White House Chief of Staff under US President Bill Clinton, serving the position for 3 years, from 1998 until 2001.  He is the former president and now Chair and Counselor of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C., and is also a Visiting Professor of Law at theGeorgetown University Law Center.

«I’m probably going to leave in early February,then I’ve got to figure out what I’m doing in life. If Hillary decides to run, I told her I’d do anything I can to help her» he told Reuters in an interview on January 2015.

Podesta was born on January 8th, 1949, in Chicago to Mary Kokori of Greek descent and John David Podesta of Italian descent.

In 1967, he graduated from Lane Technical High School and Knox College 4 years later, before attending the Georgetown University Law Center and receiving his bachelor in 1976.

Podesta held positions on Capitol Hill and as Chief Counsel for the Senate Agriculture Committee (1987–1988). In 1988, together his brother, he founded Podesta Associates, a government relations and public affairs lobbying firm, currently known as Podesta Group, having close ties to the Obama Administration. Podesta has also served as a member of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States, and the United States Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy.

From January 1993 to 1995, he was Assistant to the President, Staff Secretary and a Senior Policy Adviser on government information, privacy, telecommunications security and regulatory policy. He became President Bill Clinton’s Chief of Staff in the second Clinton Administration and executed the position until the end of Clinton’s time in office in January 2001.

He had a key role in introducing Executive Order 12958 which led to an unprecedented effort to declassify millions of pages from the U.S. diplomatic and national security history.  He is the former president and now Chair and Counselor of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress.

In 2008, Podesta authored his book The Power of Progress: How America’s Progressives Can (Once Again) Save Our Economy, Our Climate, and Our Country, where he articulates a vision of progressive values based on four chapters.

In 2009, Podesta accompanied former President Clinton to North Korea for negotiations securing the release of two American journalists imprisoned on espionage charges. John Podesta has supported efforts from the UFO research community to pressure the United States government to release files to the public that could bring light on allegations of conspiracies and cover-up of the issue.