WestExec Advisors LLC is a consulting firm founded in 2017 by
Antony Blinken
Antony John Blinken (born April 16, 1962) is an American lawyer and diplomat who served as the 71st United States secretary of state from 2021 to 2025. He previously served as Deputy National Security Advisor, deputy national security advisor ...
,
Michèle Flournoy
Michèle Angélique Flournoy (; born December 14, 1960) is an American defense policy advisor who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy under President Bill Clinton and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, under secretar ...
, Sergio Aguirre, and Nitin Chadda, all former
Obama administration
Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, took office following his victory over Republican nomine ...
officials.
Lisa Monaco
Lisa Oudens Monaco (born February 25, 1968) is an American attorney who served as the 39th United States Deputy Attorney General, United States deputy attorney general from 2021 to 2025. She is a member of the Democratic Party (United States), De ...
,
Robert O. Work,
Avril Haines
Avril Danica Haines (born August 27, 1969) is an American lawyer who served as the seventh Director of National Intelligence, director of national intelligence in the Presidency of Joe Biden, Biden administration. She is the first woman to serve ...
,
David S. Cohen, and
Jen Psaki
Jennifer Rene Psaki (; born December 1, 1978) is an American television political analyst and former government official. A political advisor who served under both the Obama and Biden administrations, she served the Biden administration as the ...
have also been WestExec employees.
Richard Stengel
Richard Allen "Rick" Stengel (born May 2, 1955) is an American editor, author, and former government official. He was ''Time'' magazine's 16th managing editor from 2006 to 2013. He was also chief executive of the National Constitution Center fro ...
, former President Obama's Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs is a current employee.
In an interview with ''
The Intercept
''The Intercept'' is an American left-wing nonprofit news organization that publishes articles and podcasts online. ''The Intercept'' has published in English since its founding in 2014, and in Portuguese since the 2016 launch of the Brazilia ...
'', Flournoy explained WestExec seeks to employ "people recently coming out of government" with "current knowledge, expertise, contacts, networks." The firm and its partners avoid becoming registered lobbyists or foreign agents so that they can (re)enter government service without delays. It does not disclose its clients, whose names are restricted from disclosure by
non-disclosure agreement
A non-disclosure agreement (NDA), also known as a confidentiality agreement (CA), confidential disclosure agreement (CDA), proprietary information agreement (PIA), or secrecy agreement (SA), is a legal contract or part of a contract between at le ...
s.
The firm is named after
West Executive Avenue
West Executive Avenue Northwest (commonly known as "West Executive Avenue" or "West Exec") is a closed street in Washington, D.C., that, as of 2017, functions as a parking lot for persons employed by the Executive Office of the President. It r ...
, a street near the West Wing of the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
.
Clients and activities
Although WestExec does not disclose its list of clients, some have been reported. Its clients include Google's
Jigsaw; Windward, an Israeli artificial intelligence firm; Shield AI, a drone surveillance company;
[ and ''Fortune 100 types''.]Bank of America
The Bank of America Corporation (Bank of America) (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in ...
, Facebook
Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
, Uber
Uber Technologies, Inc. is an American multinational transportation company that provides Ridesharing company, ride-hailing services, courier services, food delivery, and freight transport. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, a ...
, McKinsey & Company
McKinsey & Company (informally McKinsey or McK) is an American multinational strategy and management consulting firm that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. Founded in 1926 by James O. McKinse ...
, SoftBank
is a Japanese multinational Investment company, investment holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, that focuses on investment management. The group primarily invests in companies operating in technology that offer goods and services ...
, Gilead
Gilead or Gilad (, ; ''Gilʿāḏ'', , ''Jalʻād'') is the ancient, historic, biblical name of the mountainous northern part of the region of Transjordan.''Easton's Bible Dictionary'Galeed''/ref> The region is bounded in the west by the J ...
, Lazard
Lazard Inc. (formerly known as Lazard Ltd and Lazard Frères & Co.) is a financial advisory and asset management firm that engages in investment banking, asset management and other financial services, primarily with institutional clients. It i ...
, Boeing
The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...
, AT&T
AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...
, Royal Bank of Canada
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC; ) is a Canadian multinational Financial institution, financial services company and the Big Five (banks), largest bank in Canada by market capitalization. The bank serves over 20 million clients and has more than ...
, LinkedIn
LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented Social networking service, social network. It was launched on May 5, 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly. Since December 2016, LinkedIn has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. ...
, and Sotheby's
Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...
. In a similar form, Director of National Intelligence
The director of national intelligence (DNI) is a Cabinet of the United States#Current Cabinet and Cabinet-rank officials, cabinet-level Federal government of the United States, United States government intelligence and security official. The p ...
-designate Avril Haines disclosed that WestExec had worked with Palantir Technologies
Palantir Technologies Inc. is an American publicly traded company that specializes in software platforms for big data analytics. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, it was founded by Peter Thiel, Stephen Cohen, Joe Lonsdale, and Alex Karp in 2 ...
.
References
External links
*{{Official website
2017 establishments in Washington, D.C.
Consulting firms established in 2017
Political risk consulting firms