Desiree Rogers, 49, is President-elect Barack Obama‘s pick for White House Social Secretary. A Chicago friend of the Obama family, she is currently chief of online community development for Allstate Financial, serving as president of social networking.
The Wellsley College graduate previously served as CEO of Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas in Chicago and before that she directed the Illinois State Lottery.
Rogers’ former husband, John W. Rogers, has also been tapped by the President-elect and will serve as Co-chair of Obama’s Inauguration. He is a former team mate of Michelle Obama‘s brother Craig Robinson on the Princeton University basketball team.
UPDATE: Rogers was at the center of a controversy that erupted after the White House State Dinner on November 24, 2009. Michaele Salahi and Tariq Salahi crashed the event by slipping through security, even though they were not on the guest list. A subsequent congressional hearing held on December 2, 2009 was called to look into the allegations. The White House refused to send Rogers to testify.
Things heated up during a December 3rd press briefing when the discuss turned to Rogers and the public’s perception that she is acting like the ‘belle of the ball’, completely overshadowing Michelle Obama at the State Dinner. April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio got into a war of words with press secretary Robert Gibbs over the subject – check out the video here.
Photo gallery below.