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The Honorable Leon Panetta

Leon Edward Panetta is the director of the Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute of Public Policy. He was elected to serve on PPIC’s Board of Directors in 2007.

Panetta was a U.S. Representative from California's 16th (now 17th) district from 1977 to 1993. As a House member, Panetta was a key participant in the 1990 budget summit and authored numerous measures, including both the Hunger Prevention Act of 1988 and the Fair Employment Practices Resolution, which extended civil rights protections to House employees for the first time. He also authored many successful measures to protect the California coast, including the creation of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Panetta left Congress in 1993 at the beginning of his ninth term to become director of the Office of Management and Budget for the incoming Clinton administration. Panetta was appointed chief of staff to President Clinton in July 1994 and served in that position until January 1997. In that role, he was widely praised for bringing order and focus to White House operations and policymaking. Since 2005, he has served as a member of the Independent Task Force on Immigration and America's Future. In 2006, Panetta was chosen to serve on the Iraq Study Group.

Panetta was born in Monterey, California. He earned a B.A. magna cum laude from Santa Clara University and a J.D. from Santa Clara University Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review.