Joe Biden has officially formed a transition team that will be led by former Delaware Sen. Ted Kaufman, a longtime Biden adviser who also led his transition as vice president in 2008, a Biden campaign aide confirmed to CNN.
This team is a preliminary group that will focus on developing the infrastructure of the transition effort. The full rollout of the team is expected later this fall, the aide said, noting that the timing of today’s announcement falls in line with the timeline of past non-incumbent candidates who developed a transition team.
The group includes Yohannes Abraham, a longtime staffer in the Obama White House who will handle the day-to-day operations.
NBC News was the first to report about the team’s formation.
In a statement, Kaufman described the efforts as being in “the very early stages of pre-transition planning.”
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“Vice President Biden’s transition – like his Administration to follow – will prioritize the following core values: diversity of ideology and background; talent to address society’s most complex challenges; integrity and the highest ethical standards to serve the American people and not special interests; and transparency to enable trust and visibility at every stage,” Kaufman said.
In addition to Abraham, Avril Haines, former principal deputy national security adviser and deputy director of the CIA, will manage the transition team’s national security and foreign policy efforts.
Other team members that will join in the coming weeks include Gautam Raghavan, the current chief of staff to Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Angela Ramirez, longtime chief of staff to Assistant Speaker Ben Ray Lujan and former Congressional Hispanic Caucus Executive Director. Evan Ryan, who advised Biden in the White House and Julie Siegel, most recently Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s senior counsel for economic policy.