Plouffe joins Obama board

President Obama’s former campaign manager and his half-sister have joined the board of directors of the organization tasked with fundraising and constructing his presidential library, the Barack Obama Foundation announced on Wednesday.

David Plouffe, who managed Obama’s 2008 campaign and later served as a senior presidential adviser, and Maya Soetoro-Ng, Obama’s younger, maternal half-sister will join Chicago businessman Marty Nesbitt and Kevin Poorman, a businessman with close ties to Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, in running the foundation.

{mosads}Former Deputy Campaign Manager Julianna Smoot, an inaugural member of the board, will “shift roles,” the foundation said, working instead as the fundraising director for the presidential library.

“There are few people who know the president’s life and vision better than the individuals joining our Foundation team today,” Nesbitt said in a statement. “President Obama deeply trusts their advice, judgment, and expertise, and we are confident that his future Presidential Library will be stronger for their input.”

The foundation is sorting through 13 bids from locales that want to host the presidential library. The group is expected to narrow that initial group into a list for consideration by the president and first lady.

While speculation has focused on Chicago as the probable site for the library, senior presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett said last month that no city had a lock on the site.

“Chicago is home for both the president and first lady, but they’ve received several bids,” Jarrett told reporters at a breakfast event sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor.

Jarrett said that the president would not raise money for the library while he remained in office and that the Obamas had not made a decision about where they want to live after the president leaves office.