Jon Finer

Jon Finer was Chief of Staff and Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State, where he previously served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy. Before that he worked for four years at the White House, including as Senior Advisor to Deputy National Security Advisor Antony Blinken and as Special Advisor for the Middle East and North Africa and Foreign Policy Speechwriter for Vice President Joseph R. Biden. He joined the Obama Administration in 2009 as a White House Fellow, assigned to the Office of the White House Chief of Staff and the National Security Council Staff.

Prior to entering government service, Jon was a foreign and national correspondent at The Washington Post, where he reported from more than 20 countries and spent 18 months covering the war in Iraq, embedding with the U.S. Marines during the 2003 invasion and based in Baghdad in 2005-2006. He also covered conflicts in Gaza (2009), Russia/Georgia (2008) and Israel/Lebanon (2006); the 2004 U.S. Presidential campaign.