CORRECTION APPENDED

Betsy Myers, formerly the executive director of Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership, has left the Kennedy School of Government to become chief operating officer of Sen. Barack H. Obama’s presidential campaign, the school announced yesterday.

“He is the first presidential candidate who has captured my attention,” Myers said of Obama, who officially announced his candidacy in Illinois on Feb. 10. “We are going to run this campaign in a different way.”

Myers, who is known for her ability to build organizations from the ground up, will oversee the day-to-day operations of the recently announced campaign, said Obama spokesman Bill Burton. She will base herself in Illinois.

“My two passions in life are politics and leadership development,” Myers said.

Prior to her arrival at Harvard, Myers worked as deputy assistant to the president in President Bill Clinton’s White House, acting as an adviser on women’s issues.

“She built an army of friends and admirers in Clinton’s administration,” said David R. Gergen, the director at the Center for Public Leadership. Her sister, Dee Dee Myers, was Clinton’s press secretary in the early 1990s.

Gergen praised his colleague’s leadership abilities, describing her as “a terrific team builder.”

“She is able to attract talented people, recruit them to a team, and mold them into a high-performance team,” he said.

At Harvard, Myers built up the alumni association at the Center for Public Leadership. [SEE CORRECTION BELOW]

The Obama campaign contacted Myers prior to the announcement of Obama’s presidential exploratory committee in January, she said. Though her departure only became public yesterday, Myers began the transition to her new post on Jan. 19.

“I love my time at Harvard. It’s been an amazing experience. I’m taking all the lessons I learned at Harvard and putting them to work,” she said.

Donna Kalikow, who served as Myers’ deputy with a focus on marketing and development, will now lead the center as executive director.

Myers is the second Kennedy School affiliate to work for Obama, a 1991 Harvard Law School graduate. Samantha Power, Lindh professor of practice of global leadership and public policy, took a leave of absence in July 2005 to serve as Obama’s foreign policy adviser.

CORRECTION
The Feb. 14 news article "Obama Taps KSG Official for Staff" incorrectly stated that Betsy Myers worked to build up the alumni association at the Center for Public Leadership. In fact, her alumni work was for the Kennedy School of Government.