Marvin Nicholson

White House Trip Director (since January 2009)

(White House / Pete Souza)

Why He Matters

Nicholson is the man who made Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign run, and he has had a front-row seat to the last two presidential elections.

A former bartender and golf caddy with no prior political ambitions, Nicholson met Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) while working at a windsurfing shop in Massachusetts and eventually took a job in the senator's office. Before he met Kerry, he had never voted. A few years later, Nicholson was working as Kerry's personal aide (or "body man," as they are sometimes called), with a business card reading "Chief of Stuff," during the 2004 presidential election.

Read more

Corrections?

Background

At a Glance

Career History: Scheduler for Barack Obama 2008 campaign (January 2007 to November 2008); Senate aide to Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.); Personal Assistant to Sen. Kerry (D-Mass.), 2004 presidential campaign; Caddy, Augusta National Golf Club
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario, Canada and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

Alma Mater: University of Western Ontario

Path to Power

Nicholson was born to an American mother and a Canadian father. His father died when he was nine years old, leaving his mother to raise him in Toronto and on Vancouver Island. He had thoughts of getting an MBA and working on Bay Street, the center of Toronto's financial district. Instead, he graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a degree in geography and worked odd jobs - at bars and golf courses - for a few years. "At one point, I was going to be a professional caddy," Nicholson said. "That was my big life plan."

In 1998, he left Vancouver and moved to Massachusetts after falling for a woman. "When I got to Boston, if you asked me who the two senators were from Massachusetts, I couldn't have told you," Nicholson said. He was working at a windsurfing shop in Cambridge, Mass., when he met Kerry, a regular customer (during his 2004 presidential campaign, Kerry was painted as an elite who always blew with the political wind in part because of his windsurfing habit). The two became friends and Nicholson ended up caddying for Kerry for two summers.

Read more

The Issues

Nicholson is one of a half-dozen people who keeps Obama on schedule. In addition to a trip director, Obama has a director of scheduling and advance and a small team of other employees who focus on those issues.

"I can't help with policy, I don't do press. When he wants a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I'm ready." That's how Nicholson described his job for Kerry in 2004. For Obama, he is paid to be organized and keep Obama organized. But "personally, I'm one of the most disorganized people I've ever met," Nicholson says.

Read more

The Network

Nicholson is still good friends with Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.). And the former Kerry body man has become very good friends with Obama's own body man, Reggie Love.

Read more