Page 34 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

A FOUNDATION FOR FELLOWSHIP

Poizner said. “So I decided to switch careers and retire from the private
sector so I could focus on public sector service.”
Poizner had no illusions—he knew he had a great deal to learn—and
so he started looking for a leadership training program to help him make
the transition from the boardroom to the public sector. His search led him
to the White House Fellows program, where he found a home at the
National Security Council’s Office of Transnational Threats under Richard
A. Clarke, the national coordinator for counterterrorism. “I was pretty
senior in the business world,” Poizner recalled. “But I was definitely still
on the learning curve when it came to applying my leadership skills to the
public sector.” All Poizner’s skills and knowledge would be put to the test
just one week after he started his Fellowship, when terrorists attacked the
United States on September 11. The focus of Poizner’s Fellowship year
changed in a split second, and he was tapped to work on a host of home-
land security issues related to cybersecurity. Toward the end of this time
in Washington, he was even able to make a presentation to President Bush
on a highly sensitive project he had completed, and the president adopted
all his recommendations.
When his Fellowship ended, Poizner passed on his newfound knowl-
edge of the federal system by volunteering to teach American government
to at-risk twelfth graders in a San Jose high school for a year. He was named
“Rookie Teacher of the Year” for his efforts. He also credits the White
House Fellows program with giving him the experience and skills neces-
sary to handle his newest job: In 2006 Poizner was elected insurance com-
missioner of California, where he manages a team of 1,300 people and
oversees the state’s $130 billion insurance industry. “The White House Fel-
lows program isn’t just seminars and lectures but hands-on, in-the-trenches
work,” he said. “It was a fantastic experience.” Poizner is one of only two
Republicans elected recently to statewide office in California. On
September 15, 2008, he joined the race for governor of California to replace
the other Republican—his good friend Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger—
who is barred by term limits from running again after his second term ends
in 2010.
The White House Fellows program began with a good idea—to
choose a handful of outstanding young leaders like Tom Johnson, Doris
Kearns Goodwin, and Steve Poizner and bring them to Washington, D.C.,
to work at the highest levels of the executive branch. The hope of the

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