Chris Liddell


Christopher Pell Liddell is a New Zealand-born American businessman currently serving as the White House Deputy Chief of Staff in the Trump Administration. Earlier in the administration, he served as Assistant to the President for Strategic Initiatives.
He has served as Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft, the Vice Chairman of General Motors, and senior vice president and CFO of International Paper.

Early life

Liddell was born in Matamata, New Zealand, the youngest of five siblings. His father was a school teacher and died while Liddell was young. His mother supported Liddell and his siblings by working a variety of jobs, including at Smith & Caughey's in Auckland.
Liddell received his secondary education at Mount Albert Grammar School. Liddell is the only student in the history of the school to have been both Dux and Victor Ludorum, also being awarded the prize for the best player in the rugby First XV.
Chris and his brother John Liddell played senior club rugby for the Teachers Rugby Club in Auckland, in support of a former master from Mt. Albert Grammar School and senior coach of the Teachers Club, the legendary Eugene Cheriton. He represented Auckland rugby at the Under 18 and the Under 21 level.
He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree with honors from the University of Auckland and a Master of Philosophy degree from Worcester College, Oxford University.
He was nominated for a Rhodes Scholarship, by Auckland University in 1979, and awarded a Distinguished Alumni in 2003.

Career

New Zealand

He started his career working from 1983 to 1995 as an investment banker at Jarden &Co. and rose to joint CEO and Managing Director of CS First Boston NZ.
In 1995, Liddell trained for and completed the 1995 IRONMAN New Zealand Triathlon.
From 1995 to 2002, he was CFO, and then Chief Executive Officer of Carter Holt Harvey, an Asia Pacific forest products firm. CHH was then New Zealand's largest forest owner, and second largest listed company with exports to Japan, China and South Korea. CHH operated its forests as part of the New Zealand Forest Accord which balanced the protection of native forests with the commercial development of plantation forests.
In 2010 he was awarded New Zealand Business Leader of the Year.
In the 2016 New Year Honours, Liddell was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business and philanthropy.

United States

In January 2010 Liddell joined General Motors as Vice Chairman and led the company's global finance operations, including the successful $23 billion GM initial public offering, at the time the largest in history.
Previously, Liddell was a senior vice president and CFO of Microsoft, where, from 2005 to December 2009, he was responsible for leading their worldwide finance organization. His responsibilities included overseeing corporate strategy, acquisitions, treasury, tax planning, accounting and reporting, internal audits and investor relations. In 2009 he was awarded "Best CFO Software" by Institutional Investor.
Prior to Microsoft, from 2003 to 2005, Liddell served as CFO of International Paper. From 2014 to 2016, he worked as the CFO of WME-IMG, a privately held company, in the media, sports and entertainment industry.
In 2012, Liddell was executive director of transition planning for the Romney Presidential Campaign. Liddell is a recognized authority on presidential transitions and the author of Romney Readiness Project: Retrospectives and Lessons Learned. He also was a director and treasurer of the Romney for President fundraising campaign, a joint fundraising vehicle with the Republican National Committee.
In January 2017 he was appointed as Assistant to the President for Strategic Initiatives in Donald Trump's White House, He was appointed to the Office of American Innovation when it was established on March 27, 2017, where he was focusing on federal IT modernization. He was also appointed Director of the American Technology Council and was a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
In March 2018 he was picked to replace Rick Dearborn as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy.
In his White House roles he has coordinated administration policy around a number of technology issues, in particular relating to cyber security, and to the Industries of the Future, which include Artificial Intelligence, 5G, Advanced Manufacturing, Quantum Computing and Synthetic Biology.
He serves as the White House lead for the Trillion Trees Initiative, a global effort launched at the 2020 World Economic Forum to conserve, restore, and grow a trillion trees around the world by 2030. In this capacity, he oversees the Administration’s contribution, and represents the White House during its engagements with 1t.org and the 1t.org Stakeholder Council.
He has also worked extensively on workforce development policy, as a member of the National Council for the American Worker. The council's focus is on lifelong education and retraining to adapt to changes to the economy as a result of digitization.
In May 2020 he was appointed Vice Chair of the White House Transition Coordination Council.

Affiliations

Liddell is founding chairman of the Next Foundation, the largest foundation in New Zealand focused on environmental and education projects. Next has funded projects such as , a ten year project to control pests and re-introduce nature birds in the 34,000 ha of Egmont National Park, and , a partnership to make Wellington the first predator free capital in the world.
Liddell was a signatory to the , an agreement between the New Zealand government and NEXT to focus on large scale ecological restoration projects, and commit to maintaining their ecological benefits in perpetuity.
He was chairman of Project Crimson, a conservation group, and was active in a number of environmental projects in New Zealand, such as the restoration of Rotoroa Island and the Abel Tasman National Park.
A native of New Zealand, Liddell has served as director of the New Zealand Rugby Union. He spearheaded and funded a campaign to assemble and publicly display the most important All Black Jerseys in the team's 120 year history.
In 2017, Chris and his brother John Liddell donated $1 million to Mount Albert Grammar primarily to fund teacher and pupil scholarships. Later that year, Liddell donated $450,000 to Auckland University to fund a postgraduate scholarship to Worcester College, Oxford.
Liddell was Chairman of Xero, a cloud based software platform for small and medium sized businesses. Xero's products are based on a software as a service model and are sold by subscription in over 180 countries. He resigned from this role to take up his position with the Trump administration. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was also a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Advisory Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting.