Telecommunications executive Don Gips of Boulder will direct efforts to find thousands of people to fill presidential appointments as President-elect Barack Obama begins hiring for White House and other federal jobs across the country.
Gips, 48, is a longtime Obama supporter and major campaign fundraiser in Colorado and sits on the incoming president’s transition team.
There, he has spearheaded an agency-by-agency review of federal departments to prepare the Obama administration for upcoming challenges. The work, he said, has prepared him for his new role as director of presidential personnel, which he starts Jan. 20 when Obama takes office.
“It’s an honor to be able to help bring in the type of people who believe in his vision for change in government,” Gips said. “The problems the country faces now dictates we get as many people in place as quickly as we can.”
A spokesman for Obama’s transition team said Gips will set up and staff the appointment office.
Dozens of presidential appointments in Colorado — from the Bureau of Reclamation’s safety director to the education secretary’s regional representative — come open with the changing of the Washington, D.C., guard, according to a list of federal government jobs called the Plum Book.
Other high-profile appointments will include deputy secretaries and chiefs of staff to assist incoming cabinet members.
Gips, whom Obama thanks in his book “The Audacity of Hope,” is on leave from his post as a vice president for Level 3 Communications.
He befriended Obama in 2004 when he helped the then-senator from Illinois choose his Senate staff. In 2008, he personally bundled $500,000 in campaign contributions and helped organize Obama’s Colorado fundraising.
For Gips, the hire is a move up but on track with what his mission has been since he joined Obama’s staff in August — “trying to lay the groundwork so this administration will hit the ground running,” Gips said.
Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or jfender@denverpost.com
