34 Facts About Gene Sperling

Eugene Benton Sperling was born on December 24,1958 and is an American lawyer who was director of the National Economic Council and assistant to the president for economic policy under Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

Gene Sperling is the only person to serve as national economic advisor under two presidents.

In February 2021, as the nomination of Neera Tanden for OMB director faced opposition, Sperling was considered to be one of the leading contenders to assume the top position.

Gene Sperling served as Senior Advisor to President Biden and Implementation Coordinator of the American Rescue Plan.

Gene Sperling was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the son of Doris Louise and Lawrence Gene Sperling.

Gene Sperling attended Pioneer High School and then Community High School from which he graduated.

Gene Sperling attended the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and worked as an economic adviser on Michael Dukakis' campaign.

Gene Sperling served as deputy director and then director of the National Economic Council during the Clinton administration.

Gene Sperling reportedly held up the final negotiation to ensure that the design of the child tax credit would lead to bigger payments for lower-income families on the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Gene Sperling played a leading role in the design and passage of other Clinton administration economic initiatives, including the Hope Scholarship Tax Credit, the New Markets Tax Credit, the Children's Health Insurance Program, the Gear-UP Early College Mentoring program, expanded debt relief to poor nations, and stronger international protections against abusive child labor.

Gene Sperling was the architect of the Save Social Security First budget strategy, and co-negotiated the final week of the China WTO agreement in Beijing in 1999 with United States Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky.

Gene Sperling represented the US government and gave a keynote address at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal in 2000, where the world committed to the second millennium development goal of universal primary education.

In that role, Gene Sperling advocated for a global compact for education for all children, with publications on universal education for all nations in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, and IMF Quarterly: Finance and Development.

Gene Sperling authored concept papers for the Education for All Fast Track Initiative on Closing the Trust Gaps: Unlocking Financing for Education in Fragile State and How to Unlock Financing for Fragile States and Move Toward a More Unified Global Architecture for Education Financing: Eight Preliminary Recommendations.

In 2003, Gene Sperling founded the Global Campaign for Education-US, a broad-based coalition of national and community-based organizations, international NGOs, teacher unions, faith-based groups, and think tanks dedicated to ensuring universal quality education for all children.

Gene Sperling is the author of the 2020 book Economic Dignity, building on a 2019 piece he published in Democracy Journal.

Gene Sperling was a top economic adviser for Hillary Clinton during her 2008 presidential campaign.

Gene Sperling was compensated $158,000 for speeches, mostly to financial companies.

Gene Sperling received $2.2 million in total compensation in 2008 from a variety of consulting jobs, board seats, speaking fees and fellowships.

From 2009 to 2011, Gene Sperling served as a counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

Gene Sperling advised on responding to the financial crisis, was a member of the Obama Auto Rescue Task Force, was Geithner's top aide on fiscal, budget, tax, and small business issues, and coordinated the Treasury efforts on design and passage of the Affordable Care Act.

Gene Sperling was a leading advocate in the administration for increasing refundable tax credits for working families, extending unemployment benefits, adding restrictions on executive compensation for companies receiving public funds, and proposing a fee on major financial institutions.

Gene Sperling was reported to have been one of the key members of the administration to advocate to President Obama that he save Chrysler.

Gene Sperling is credited with designing the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, which created a $30 billion fund for loans and the State Small Business Credit Initiative.

In that role, Gene Sperling played a key role representing the White House in budget negotiations with Congress as well as serving as the White House point person on several of the president's top priorities including job creation, manufacturing policy, housing, GSE reform, and skills initiatives.

Gene Sperling was credited with being the key architect of the $447 billion American Jobs Act and he led the Obama Administration's Detroit rescue task force in 2013, which mobilized $300 million to support Detroit.

Gene Sperling led the design and implementation of the president's initiatives on supporting workers facing long-term unemployment, Manufacturing Innovation Hubs, SelectUSA, the College Opportunity Summit, and the ConnectED initiative.

Gene Sperling was named one of the 100 Most Powerful People in Finance worldwide in 2013 by Worth Magazine.

Gene Sperling was named one of the 50 Most Powerful People in Washington by GQ in 2012.

Two years after Gene Sperling left the White House, a ProPublica article reported that he had taken loans totaling between $300,000 and $600,000 from Howard Shapiro, a lawyer at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, between 2011 and 2013.

The ProPublica article stated that Gene Sperling "played a role" in a federal and state government settlement with five major financial institutions over foreclosure and mortgage servicing abuses, and that WilmerHale was "one of many law firms involved in negotiating the settlement," though it did not state that Shapiro was involved in the settlement.

On March 15,2021, President Joe Biden announced that Gene Sperling was selected to oversee the roll-out of the newly signed $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

Gene Sperling resigned in August 2024 in order to assume a position as a senior economic advisor on the Kamala Harris 2024 presidential campaign.

Gene Sperling is married to television writer Allison Abner, whom he met when he was a consultant on NBC's The West Wing.