White House Taps Jon Bon Jovi for Seat on New Council: Report
President Barack Obama signed an executive order Tuesday establishing a White House Council for Community Solutions, with Jon Bon Jovi -- Democratic troubadour and hair band hero -- as a founding member, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The board, mandated by the 2009 Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, has the nebulous mandate of advising the president “on the best ways to mobilize citizens, nonprofits, businesses and government to work more effectively together to solve specific community needs.”
That’s not terribly specific, but the new body does serve a purpose: to keep friends and donors of the president close, while pulling would-be friends a bit closer. Bon Jovi has been a Democratic stalwart for a while. The council’s chairwoman, Patty Stonesifer, is a former chief executive of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation who is now chairwoman of the Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents.
Other members are John Bridgeland, who headed President George W. Bush’s domestic policy council, Paula Boggs, an executive vice president at Starbucks Coffee Co., Byron Auguste, a heavyweight at the consulting giant McKinsey & Co., and John Donahoe, president and chief executive of eBay Inc.