Daniel Restrepo

Founder, Restrepo Strategies LLC; former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council

Bio Current as of April 28, 2017

Founder and Managing Director of Restrepo Strategies LLC, an international strategic consulting firm – has built a career crafting strategies and solving problems at the intersection of policy, politics, communications, and law.
Restrepo has worked on behalf of a wide-range of clients including multinational media and technology companies, independent energy producers, private equity funds, major consumer products companies, and global law firms, among others. He advises clients engaged in or exploring business opportunities throughout the Americas. Restrepo is also a regular conference speaker and an on-air contributor for CNN Español/CNN.
He has served on the board of directors of a publicly traded Fortune 1000 company and is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, a member of the Board of Directors of the National Security Network and is a Special Counsel with the law firm of Jones Walker LLP.
For nearly six years and through two presidential campaigns, Restrepo served as the principal advisor to President Obama on issues related to Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada, serving as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council from March 2009 to July 2012 and as an advisor to Obama for America in 2008 and 2012. He also served as a principal Spanish-language media surrogate for the 2008 and 2012 Obama presidential campaigns. He managed the development and implementation of U.S. national and homeland security, economic, energy, and trade policy related to the Western Hemisphere and was responsible for managing the President’s participation in thirty bilateral meetings, two Summits of the Americas, two North American Leaders’ Summits, three trips to Mexico, and a trip to Brazil, Chile, and El Salvador.
Previously, Restrepo created and directed The Americas Project – focused on Latin America and on the role of Hispanics in the United States, their future and the implications for public policy – at the Center for Americas Progress. Joining the Center shortly after it was established Restrepo helped stand up its government and external relations department and served as Deputy Counsel.
Prior to the Center, Restrepo was as an associate at the law firm of Williams & Connolly, LLP where he engaged in all aspects of high-stakes, civil and criminal investigations and litigation.
He also worked as an attorney for the Florida Democratic Party during the 2000 election recount and served as the Research Director for the Florida Democratic Coordinated Campaign during the 2000 general election. Restrepo served as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Anthony J. Scirica of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and the University of Virginia.
Restrepo worked for Rep. Lee H. Hamilton on the staff of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in the mid-1990s. Restrepo has been named one of America’s most influential Latinos three times by Poder magazine. Restrepo, his wife and their two children live in Washington, DC.