Jon Finer is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at American Progress. Finer served as principal deputy national security adviser under President Joe Biden from 2021 to 2025. Prior to joining President Biden’s staff, he was global head of geopolitical and policy affairs at Warburg Pincus LLC and an adjunct senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.
He previously served as chief of staff and director of policy planning at the U.S. Department of State and in several White House roles, including senior adviser to then-principal deputy national security adviser Antony Blinken, special adviser for the Middle East and North Africa, and foreign policy speechwriter for then-Vice President Biden. Finer also worked in the Obama administration starting in 2009 as a White House fellow assigned to the Office of the White House chief of staff and the National Security Council staff.
Prior to his government service, Finer was a foreign and national correspondent for The Washington Post, where he reported from more than 20 countries.
He is currently a distinguished visiting fellow at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.