Three More Harvard Grads Will Join Obama Ranks If Selected for Defense and Justice Department Positions

Three more Harvard graduates will be heading to Washington D.C. come Jan. 20. Last week, David W. Ogden, Michelle A. Flournoy ’83, and Thomas J. Perelli, were all nominated by president-elect Obama to serve under his administration. Perelli and Ogden are graduates of the Law School while Flournoy, an Eliot House resident as an undergraduate, studied Social Studies at the College.

Ogden, currently a partner at the WilmerHale law firm in Washington, D.C., was selected to be deputy attorney general by the President-elect. He had previously served in the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense under the Clinton administration. Ogden, if confirmed, would manage the daily operations of the department.

Flournoy, co-founder and president of the Center for a New American Security, was selected to be under-secretary of defense for policy.

She occupied a senior position in the Department of Defense under Bill Clinton and has also been a research professor at the National Defense University.

Perrelli, managing partner at the Jenner & Block law firm in Washington, D.C., was picked to be the associate attorney general. He has previously served as deputy assistant attorney general. If confirmed, Perrelli would oversee civil rights among other issues.

Harvard Kennedy School Professor Joseph S. Nye was appointed ambassador to Japan. Nye, who earned his Ph.D, at Harvard, is the author of the noted “Soft Power” theory of foreign relations and a former dean of the Kennedy School.

Ogden, Flournoy, Perelli, and Nye could not be reached for comment.