Ben Rhodes

Background

Rhodes grew up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He is the son of an Episcopalian father from Texas and a Jewish mother from New New York

Education

He attended the Collegiate School, graduating in 1996. Rhodes then attended Rice University, graduating in 2000 with majors in English and political science. He then moved back to New York, attending New York University and graduating in 2002 with an Master of Fine Arts in creative writing.

Career

His title is "Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting." Rhodes has been a foreign policy speechwriter for Obama since 2007. In the summer of 1997, Rhodes volunteered with the Rudy Giuliani mayoral campaign. In the summer of 2001, he worked on the New York City Council campaign of Diana Reyna.

Rhodes then spent five years as a Hamilton assistant, helping to draft the Iraq Study Group Report and the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.

In 2007, Rhodes began working as a speechwriter for the 2008 Obama presidential campaign. Rhodes wrote Obama"s 2009 Cairo speech "A New Beginning".

Rhodes was the adviser who counseled Obama to withdraw support from Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, becoming a key adviser during the 2011 Arab Spring. In March 2013, Rhodes declined to comment on his role in Obama administration policy decisions, saying, "My main job, which has always been my job, is to be the person who represents the president’s view on these issues.".

Achievements

• In 2011, Rhodes was on Time magazine"s "40 Under 40" list of powerful and prominent young professionals.

Membership

In 2002, James Gibney, editor of Foreign Policy, introduced Rhodes to Lee Hamilton, former member of the House of Representatives and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, who was looking for a speechwriter.