Vivek Viswanathan

About Vivek Viswanathan

Vivek serves as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the Deputy Chief of Staff at the White House. Before assuming his current position, Vivek was a senior policy advisor on the White House National Economic Council.

Before joining the White House staff, Vivek served as senior counselor to California Governor Gavin Newsom and as a senior budget and fiscal advisor to the Governor, representing the administration in the Assembly and Senate budget and conference committees for the Governor's first two budgets. He was previously a special advisor in the Office of Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. and a member of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign policy team. He was a candidate for California State Treasurer in 2018.  

Vivek was born in Brooklyn to parents of Indian descent. He received his undergraduate degree summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University, a master's degree (MPhil) as a Henry Fellow at the University of Cambridge, and JD and MBA degrees from Stanford University.

In addition to his passion for history and public policy, Vivek enjoys endurance sports. He is a three-time qualifier for the Boston Marathon and has completed two Ironman triathlons (each consisting of a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run).