Jake Sullivan
Director, State Department's Policy Planning Office (since February 2011)
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(U.S. State Department)
Sullivan's credentials suggest he was on the road to a stellar career as a lawyer. But the path of the Yale Law School graduate and former debate champion has taken a somewhat unorthodox turn. As deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sullivan advises Clinton on almost every foreign policy issue she faces.
In January 2011, Sullivan was poised to become head of the State Department's think tank known as the policy planning office, replacing Anne-Marie Slaughter, who is returning to teach at Princeton. Observers noted that while Sullivan is young for the post, he won't even have to switch offices and enjoys Clinton's total confidence.
- Career History: Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (January 2009-January 2011); Deputy Policy Director, Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton (2007 to 2009); Associate, Faegre & Benson (2006)
- Hometown: Minneapolis, Minn.
- Alma Mater: Yale University, B.A., 1998; Yale Law School, J.D., 2003
- DC Office: 2201 C Street NW, (202) 647-6575
- Web site
Sullivan grew up in Minneapolis, Minn. He attended Yale, where he was a star member of the debate team, an editor of the Yale Daily News, and a winner of the prestigious Truman Scholarship.
After graduating in 1998, he headed to Oxford. There, he earned a master's degree in international relations as a Rhodes Scholar. He also continued to hone his debate skills, earning second place in the individual speaker category at the 2000 World Championships in Sydney, Australia.
As one of the top student debaters in the world, Sullivan was Clinton's go-to debate prepper. To ready Clinton for the debates during the 2008 presidential primary, Sullivan asked two sets of questions: one focused on policy, and the other on politics. These included questions about the bruising Democratic nomination fight to the state of Clinton's campaign, he said.
He also helped Clinton articulate why Clinton's positions were better than other candidates.
He also prepared her for her secretary of state confirmation hearing along with then-Deputy Secretary of States Jim Steinberg, Jack Lew , Wendy Sherman, policy aides Andrew Shapiro and senior adviser Philippe Reines .
Sullivan is a later addition to Hillaryland, but as a top staffer, he is in Clinton's inner circle. Other members include Lissa Muscatine, now a speechwriter at the State Department; Cheryl Mills, Clinton's State Department chief of staff; Ambassador-at-Large for Women's Issues Melanne Verveer; former Senior Adviser to Health and Human Services Department's Office of Health Reform Neera Tanden and Judith McHale, under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs.
He works most closely with fellow Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin and Philippe Reines, Clinton's press secretary when she was in the Senate, reprised that role at the State Department.
- George Washington University web site
- Cottle, Michelle, "Hillary Control," New York Magazine, Aug. 13, 2007
- Rogin, Josh, Foreign Policy, The Cable, Jan. 25, 2011
- Winchester, Lauren, "Clinton foreign policy," University Wire, Feb. 25, 2008
- Yale Debate web site
- Yale Debate web site
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