Chris Liddell

He was the managing director of CS First Boston NZ[4] and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Carter Holt Harvey.[7] From 2003 Liddell served as CFO of International Paper.[8] Liddell was a senior vice president and CFO of Microsoft, where, from 2005 to December 2009,[9][10] he was responsible for leading their worldwide finance organization.[11] Liddell served as Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer at General Motors, where he managed the company’s $23 billion IPO in November 2010, which, at that time, which was believed to be the largest public offering in history.[12][13][14] “Chris was a major contributor during a pivotal time in the company’s history,” said Daniel Akerson, GM chairman and CEO. “He guided the company’s IPO process and established a good financial foundation for the future.”[15] From 2014 to 2016, he worked as the CFO of WME-IMG, a privately held company in the media, sports and entertainment industry.[16]

In 2010 he was named the New Zealand Business Leader of the Year by the New Zealand Herald.[17] In the 2016 New Year Honours, Liddell was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business and philanthropy.[18]

In 2012, Liddell was executive director of transition planning for the Romney Presidential Campaign.[19]

In January 2017 he was appointed as Assistant to the President for Strategic Initiatives in Donald Trump's White House,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] He was appointed to the Office of American Innovation (OAI) when it was established on March 27, 2017, where he was focusing on federal IT modernization. He opted to receive the minimum salary required to get health insurance, $30,000.[28] He was also appointed Director of the American Technology Council [29] and was a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.[30] In March 2018 he was picked to replace Rick Dearborn as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy.[2] 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.[31]

In May 2018 Chris Liddell was alleged to have participated in an informal vote regarding the separation of children of illegal immigrants from their parents[32] The vote took place in the White House Situation Room when Stephen Miller asked for a show of hands. An estimated 2,800 children were separated from their parents. Liddell was White House deputy chief of staff at the time of the vote. Liddell refuted this in an interview with TVNZ's Q & A, stating that this informal vote did not happen, and that if it did, he would not have voted in favour of it.[33]

He served as the White House lead for the Trillion Trees Initiative, part of the Trillion Tree Campaign, which aims to conserve, restore, and grow a trillion trees around the world by 2030. President Trump signed an Executive Order “Establishing the One Trillion Trees Interagency Council” in October 2020. [34] Liddell oversaw the Administration's contribution, and represented the White House during its engagements with 1t.org and the 1t.org Stakeholder Council.[35] [36]

In October 2020 he was nominated by Donald Trump to be the next Secretary-General of the OECD. It was unclear if Joe Biden would have supported his nomination progressing.[37][38][39] New Zealand's government did not make a decision to support the nomination. The left-wing Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand said he should be rejected as his work for Trump had eroded multilateral approaches in the Paris Agreement and the World Health Organization. The right-wing New Zealand National Party said it would be in New Zealand's interest to have a "boy from Matamata" in the role, but later reversed their support for Liddell.[40][41][42]

In 2021 Liddell hired a public relations company for damage control of his reputation in New Zealand. A former New Zealand Labour Party senior advisor said "He's disgraced himself and his country, and he should be a social pariah for his choices. ... when you're putting children in cages, systematically lying to overturn legitimate election results, inciting people to storm the Capitol building - you've got to take responsibility. If he was the good guy, trying to stop it going off the rails, he must be very bad at his job - because it's gone entirely off the rails and he was at the centre of it."[43][40][44]

Liddell reportedly considered resigning after the storming of the Capitol, but announced he would stay on to ensure a smooth transition to President elect Joe Biden.[45][46] Liddell stated that he "was horrified, like everyone else, by the events yesterday."[46]

On 20 January 2021, the OECD confirmed that Liddell had withdrawn his nomination to serve as the Secretary-General of the OECD.[47][48]