So long, Ebola Czar. Ron Klain is heading back to the private sector.
President Obama’s fix-it man is returning to Steve Case’s venture firm early next year.
With the Ebola crisis seemingly in hand, Ron Klain, the veteran political operative the White House plucked from a venture capital gig to coordinate the government’s response, is planning a late-winter return to the private sector.
Klain has committed to former AOL chief Steve Case that by March 1, he’ll be back on the job as president of Case Holdings and general counsel for Case’s venture firm Revolution LLC, Case tells Fortune. An administration official confirmed the plan.
“He has no intention of staying on in any other capacity here at the White House,” the administration official said. “Ron will do the job for which he was appointed and return to Revolution.”
Klain’s role as the White House’s “Ebola czar” was always meant to be temporary. He took a leave of absence from Revolution in late October to join the administration as a special government employee — a technical designation for short-termers that stipulates they’ll stay on the job no longer than 130 days. But there has been active speculation, fueled by a POLITICO report, that Klain would stay on in the White House in another role, potentially succeeding John Podesta as Counselor to the President, if Podesta quits to run a Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. More at Source
