Sarah Feinberg, a longtime aide to White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, is leaving the Obama administration to work for Bloomberg, the global data and news company announced Wednesday.
Feinberg’s departure raises fresh questions about how much longer Emanuel, who has been a target for criticism from the left, will stay at the White House.
Despite much speculation in recent months about an imminent exit by Emanuel, sources inside the White House recently told The Daily Caller that the former congressman from Illinois plans to stay through the end of 2010.
Feinberg, who is married to White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer, has worked for Emanuel since 2005, when she did press and communications for him at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
During the last five years, Feinberg has been a constant presence at Emanuel’s side. After Emanuel left Congress to work for President Obama, Feinberg became a central player in a communications hub established by Emanuel that functioned somewhat independently of White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.
Bloomberg’s press release said Feinberg will take a position as “director of Bloomberg’s communication and business strategy efforts, with an added focus on expanding Bloomberg’s presence globally.”
“As Bloomberg expands its presence in Washington and prepares to launch its government information division, I’m looking forward to being a part of an organization with such an impressive record of innovation and entrepreneurship,” Feinberg said in the press release.
Bloomberg L.P., which was founded in 1981 by current New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, began by selling trading terminals to Wall Street firms but is now the parent company over a growing media empire that includes a wire service, a television station and radio news.