Current Position: White House Social Secretary (since January 2009)
Credit: Bill O'Leary/TWP
Why She Matters
Her last job was as a networker, so it seems fitting she is the White House social secretary. The longtime Chicago resident works closely with her good friend Michelle Obama to play hostess extraordinaire at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
The social secretary is best known for planning extravagant state dinners for heads of state, but she will have a hand in the planning of every ceremony and event that takes place at the White House. “It’s like running a small agency,” says Ann Stock, who was social secretary in the Clinton White House. “Her business savvy, her marketing skills will all come into play. Her close relationship with the Obamas is very important because she comes to the job already understanding their preferences.”
Rogers comes to the White House after a career in business. Most recently, she was charged with heading up a new social networking site being launched by Allstate Financial, and before that, she spent more than a decade working for Peoples Energy Corp., first as the chief marketing officer for the parent company and later as the president of Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas in Chicago.
Rogers, whose ex-husband is very close to Barack Obama and played basketball with Michelle Obama’s brother Craig Robinson, has known the Obamas for years and been a prodigious donor to Barack Obama’s political campaigns since 1999. She will be the first black social secretary in the White House, but the title of “first African-American” is not something new for Rogers, who was also the first black president of Peoples Gas. “I would like to see the day when we can say we are not the first Black because there are so many of us,” she said when she left Peoples Gas.
Senior Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett said Rogers will try to open up the White House “so it’s the people’s house again. This campaign engaged a lot of people in ways they had not engaged before. This is about continuing to capture that excitement.”
But Rogers may have opened that door a bit too wide when Virginia socialites Michaele and Tariq Salahi were allowed into Obama's first state dinner in November 2009 for the prime minister of India. Some criticized Rogers for her management style after the infamous incident, and Republican lawmakers pressed for a subpoena for her to testify before Congress.The White House declined.
At a Glance
Current Position: White House Social Secretary (since January 2009)
Career History: President of social networking for Allstate Financial (2008); President of Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas (2004 to 2008); Senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Peoples Energy Corp. (1997 to 2004)
Birthday: June 1959
Hometown: New Orleans, La.
Alma Mater: Wellesley College, B.A. (political science); Harvard University, M.B.A.
Spouse: Divorced
Religion: N/A
DC Office: N/A
Email N/A
Web site
Path to Power
Rogers grew up in New Orleans. Her mother ran a day-care center that the family lived above, and her father was a public-school teacher and a city councilman. Rogers earned a degree in political science from Wellesley College in Massachusetts and received an MBA from Harvard Business School. Immediately after graduating, she moved to Chicago and joined AT&T as a customer service manager. Over the next 20 years, she moved from job to job, but stayed in Illinois.
In 1991, Rogers joined the public sector, taking a job as director of the Illinois Lottery. At the time, the lottery’s signature game, Lotto, was struggling. Sales dropped 23 percent in 1993, mirroring a nationwide trend (Lotto sales had dropped 48 percent in Michigan, 35 percent in Pennsylvania and 31 percent in Ohio over the previous five years). Rogers oversaw a new marketing campaign with the slogan “Somebody’s gonna Lotto … It might as well be you,” and she created a 1-800 number that people could call to play the lottery using their credit cards (she also set a cap of $520 per person per year so people wouldn’t run up large debts). Rogers also emphasized instant-win games and saw lottery revenue increase seven percent in 1995. “We’re running a business inside state government,” she said. “We can make things happen.”
In 1997, Rogers became senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Peoples Energy Corp., a regulated natural- gas utility serving the Chicago area. She was named president of Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas in 2004. As company president, she dealt with several high-profile investigations and convinced regulators to approve a large rate hike.
She left Peoples in the summer of 2008 to become president of social networking for Allstate Financial. The insurance giant created the position to jumpstart a new social networking site that it hoped would serve like MySpace or Facebook for their consumers. “The idea … would be to have a forum where people can talk about these things among themselves and, at the same time, [Allstate could] provide them with factual information about financial products and retirement,” Rogers said.
A longtime friend and supporter of Barack Obama, Rogers held fundraisers for Obama during his 2008 presidential run. Shortly after Obama came in second in the New Hampshire primary, Rogers hosted a $1,000-per-person fundraiser that attracted 600 guests and spilled over into a neighbor’s apartment.
The Issues
Rogers is a successful businesswoman, who jumpstarted the Illinois lottery by running it like a business. During her tenure as president of Peoples Gas, the company was accused of conspiring with Enron Corp. to overcharge customers. Peoples agreed to a $100-million refund for customers without admitting any wrongdoing. Rogers also dealt with federal and state investigations into Peoples’ testing procedures for pipe corrosion. Despite those challenges, she was able to secure a $71 million rate hike for the gas company and included a provision that guaranteed the company received the increase even if gas usage fell short of projections.
Rogers served on a variety of boards and as part of several community groups in Chicago. She was vice-chair of the Lincoln Park Zoo and was on the board of the Museum of Science and Industry. She also served on the board of Northwestern Memorial Foundation and Polk Bros. Foundation, as well as the corporate boards of Equity Residential and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois.
Brand Obama
In the White House, Rogers emphasizes marketing over social planning. "We have the best brand on Earth: the Obama brand," Rogers told the Wall Street Journal. "Our possibilities are endless." She is described as a world-class networker with hundreds of connections in both Chicago and D.C. She defines her job promoting the Obama presidency. "You have to think about it, in my mind, almost like a business," Rogers said. "Otherwise, you never get there. You get caught in linen hell and flower hell, list hell."
Party Crashers
Rogers's affinity for the limelight was criticized after Virginia socialites Michaele and Tariq Salahi allegedly crashed her first state dinner for the Indian prime minister in November 2009. Some said that the flashy social secretary should have had a member of her office manning the security checkpoints instead of attending the dinner herself.
The Network
Rogers once was married to John W. Rogers Jr., a close friend of Barack Obama who played basketball with Michelle Obama’s brother, Craig Robinson, at Princeton. Both Desiree Rogers and John Rogers are prominent in the Chicago business world and served as campaign bundlers in the 2008 presidential race. They maintain a cordial relationship.
Desiree Rogers is also an important member of the Chicago social scene, and she threw a lavish birthday party for Obama adviser Jarrett in November 2008. She is a good friend of First Lady Michelle Obama.
Campaign Contributions
Rogers was a major fundraiser for
Barack Obama in 2008. She has been a longtime Democratic donor, giving more than $100,000 to Democrats during her career as a successful businesswoman, including $16,600 to Barack Obama dating back to 1999. She gave $47,950 to candidates, all Democrats, in 2008, and she helped raise more than $200,000 for Obama during that election cycle.
