President Barack Obama on Thursday chose J.P. Morgan Chase executive William Daley to be his new White House chief of staff as part of a major retooling of his team. The selection is to be announced by Obama at a 2:30 pm EST (1930 GMT) White House ceremony, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
By picking Daley, Obama is bringing in someone who was not part of his original inner circle and someone who has deep business experience at a time when fixing the US economy is Obama's greatest challenge ahead of his 2012 re-election bid.
Daley's choice, along with the expected selection of Treasury Department official Gene Sperling as a senior economic adviser, would mean a return to the White House of experienced hands from their days working for Democratic President Bill Clinton, who presided over a growing economy in the 1990s. Current chief of staff Pete Rouse, a long-time Obama adviser who relishes a behind-the-scenes role, is being moved to the senior advisory position of counsellor to the president. Obama is conducting a shake-up of his White House staff to prepare for the next two years of divided government - with Republicans now in control of the US House of Representatives - and to lay the groundwork for his re-election campaign.