Valerie Jarrett

Valerie Jarrett (born November 14, 1956) is an American businesswoman and former government official. She currently serves as the chief executive officer of the Obama Foundation since 2021. From 2009 to 2017, she was the senior advisor to U.S. President Barack Obama and assistant to the president for public engagement and intergovernmental affairs. Prior to that, she was a co-chair of the Obama–Biden Transition Project. Jarrett was born in Shiraz, Iran, to American parents James E. Bowman and Barbara T. Bowman, and later moved to London and Chicago. She is of African-American and European descent, with DNA testing revealing her ancestry as 46% African, 49% European, and 5% Native American.