Leon Panetta

Biography

Leon Panetta was born in Monterey, California, in 1938 to Italian immigrants from Calabria. He graduated in political science from Santa Clara University in 1960 and took his law degree there in 1963, then served as an Army military intelligence officer from 1964 to 1966.

He started in politics as an aide to Republican senator Thomas Kuchel and in 1969 joined the Nixon administration, where as director of the Office for Civil Rights he enforced school desegregation faster than the White House wanted and was forced out in 1970. After practising law in Monterey he became a Democrat in 1971 and won a House seat in 1976. In eight terms he worked on budget, agriculture and coastal issues, wrote the law creating the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, and chaired the House Budget Committee from 1989.

Bill Clinton made him director of the Office of Management and Budget in 1993 and White House chief of staff from 1994 to 1997. Panetta and his wife then founded the Panetta Institute for Public Policy, and he chaired the Pew Oceans Commission and served on the Iraq Study Group.

Under Barack Obama he was director of the CIA from 2009, overseeing the operation that killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011, and secretary of defense from July 2011 to February 2013, when he opened all combat roles to women. He later returned to his institute as chairman.