Dan Restrepo

Dan advises clients on Latin America, having served as the principal advisor to President Barack Obama on issues related to Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada. He served as special assistant to the president and senior director for western hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council and as an advisor to and surrogate for Obama for America during the 2008 and 2012 campaigns. 

Dan served as a principal Spanish-language media surrogate for the 2008 and 2012 Obama presidential campaigns. He managed the development and implementation of US national and homeland security, economic, energy and trade policy related to the Western Hemisphere and was responsible for managing the president’s participation in 30 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, Dan created and directed The Americas Project at the Center for American Progress, which focused on Latin America and on the role of Hispanics in the US, their future and the implications for public policy. Joining the Center shortly after it was established, Dan helped stand up its government and external relations department and served as deputy counsel. 

Dan was previously an associate at the law firm of Williams & Connolly, where he engaged in all aspects of high-stakes, civil and criminal investigations and litigation. He worked as an attorney for the Florida Democratic Party during the 2000 election recount and as the research director for the Florida Democratic Coordinated Campaign during the 2000 general election.

He served as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Anthony J. Scirica of the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and worked for Representative Lee H. Hamilton on the staff of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Dan is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and the University of Virginia. He has been named one of America’s most influential Latinos several times by Poder magazine.