Chris Liddell currently serves as the White House’s director of strategic initiatives. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Kelly taps Kushner ally Chris Liddell as deputy chief for policy

White House chief of staff John Kelly has tapped Chris Liddell, a senior White House aide and former executive at Microsoft and General Motors, as his deputy.

Liddell, who currently serves as the White House’s director of strategic initiatives, will be named deputy chief of staff for policy coordination, filling out Kelly’s bare-bones team.


“Chris is widely respected across the administration and is highly qualified to oversee and coordinate our policy process,” Kelly said. “We look forward to having him in this new role.”

As of Monday, Kelly was down to just one deputy: Joe Hagin, who focuses on the day-to-day operations of the West Wing. Rick Dearborn, the deputy chief of staff for legislative and intergovernmental affairs, departed the White House on Friday.

Kelly’s office has been short-staffed since Kirstjen Nielsen, who was Kelly’s deputy at the Department of Homeland Security, returned to DHS as secretary in December.

Up until now, the White House had not named a deputy chief of staff for policy, though several aides, including Nielsen and former staff secretary Rob Porter, had informally played that role.

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Liddell joined the administration last year to work in Jared Kushner’s Office of American Innovation. Liddell, who was born in New Zealand but is a U.S. citizen, was previously the chief financial officer at both GM and Microsoft. He was briefly under consideration to lead the National Economic Council.

“He has extensive experience managing large organizations and has already overseen a number of interagency processes in the White House,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. “In his new role Chris will manage the policy process as we continue to enact the president’s agenda.”

POLITICO was first to report the move.