Klain was a key member of the team that helped Obama prepare for presidential debates. | AP Photos Obama selects Klain as Ebola czar

President Barack Obama has chosen Ron Klain to serve as his administration’s Ebola response coordinator, the White House said Friday.

Klain will be responsible for the administration’s “whole of government Ebola response,” a White House official said. The official did not refer to Klain as Obama’s “Ebola czar,” but his responsibilities fit the definition.


Klain will report to Obama homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco, who had been more informally coordinating the administration’s response, and to National Security Adviser Susan Rice. His work will focus on making sure that U.S. efforts “to protect the American people by detecting, isolating and treating Ebola patients in this country are properly integrated but don’t distract from the aggressive commitment to stopping Ebola at the source in West Africa,” the official said.'

While Monaco, Rice and others in the administration have “done outstanding work in confronting this challenge so far,” the official said, “but given their management of other national and homeland security priorities, additional bandwidth will further enhance the government’s Ebola response.”

( Also on POLITICO: Obama’s Ebola challenge)

On Thursday, Obama signaled his willingness to appoint someone to coordinate the government’s response, saying that “it may make sense for us to have one person, in part just so that after this initial surge of activity we can have a more regular process just to make sure that we’re crossing all the T’s and dotting all the I’s going forward.”

Klain was chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden from 2009 to 2011 and also served in the same position under Vice President Al Gore. He was also a key member of the team that helped Obama prepare for presidential debates. He is currently president of Case Holdings, former AOL chairman Steve Case’s holding company, and general counsel of investment firm Revolution.

CNN first reported the pick.