President Barack Obama has selected JP Morgan Chase executive William Daley as his new White House chief of staff.
The selection is to be announced by Mr Obama at a ceremony in the White House this evening, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
By picking Mr Daley, Mr Obama is bringing in someone who was not part of his original inner circle and someone who has deep business experience at a time when fixing the US economy is the president's greatest challenge ahead of his bid for re-election in 2012.
Mr Daley's choice, along with the expected selection of Treasury Department official Gene Sperling as a senior economic adviser, would mean a return to the White House of experienced hands from their days working for Democratic President Bill Clinton, who presided over a growing economy in the 1990s.
Current chief of staff Pete Rouse, a long-time adviser to Mr Obama who relishes a behind-the-scenes role, is being moved to the senior advisory position of counselor to the president.
President Obama is conducting a shake-up of his White House staff to prepare for the next two years of divided government - with Republicans now in control of the US House of Representatives - and to lay the groundwork for his re-election campaign.
Mr Daley, who was Bill Clinton's commerce secretary, met Mr Obama and other officials at the White House yesterday to discuss the job.
Mr Rouse became interim chief of staff when Rahm Emanuel resigned last year to run for Chicago mayor. The chief of staff is a critical position, leading White House efforts to carry out the president's agenda.
President Obama is expected to announce the members of his new economic team tomorrow, including the expected naming of Mr Sperling as chief of the National Economic Council.
President Obama also is contemplating a successor to his spokesman Robert Gibbs, who announced yesterday he will leave the White House early next month to become a paid consultant and help what could be a difficult re-election campaign for Mr Obama, who is battling to bring down a persistent high 9.8 per cent jobless rate.
Reuters