President-elect Barack Obama today said he would name Timothy Geithner–an official central to government efforts to shore up American International Group Inc.–to be his Treasury secretary.
Obama also has named Desiree Rogers, the president of social networking at Allstate Financial, a unit of Allstate Corp., Northbrook, Ill., to be special assistant to the president and White House social secretary.
Obama said he would name Lawrence Summers to be the chief White House economics advisor, with the title of director of the National Economic Council.
Obama named Christina Romer to be chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, and Melody Barnes and Heather Higginbottom to be director and deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council.
"Vice President-elect [Joe] Biden and I have assembled an economic team with the vision and expertise to stabilize our economy, create jobs, and get America back on track," Obama said in a statement about his economic team.
Geithner now is president of the Federal Reserve Board of New York, where he oversees the government's 79.9% stake in AIG.
Geithner helped shape the financial package that is keeping AIG in business.
Geithner joined the Treasury Department in 1988 and has served three presidents. From 1999 to 2001, he was Treasury under secretary for international affairs. He was director of the policy development department at the International Monetary Fund until 2003.
