Person of Interest: David McKean

David McKean
Staff Director, Senate Foreign Relations Committee

In his first few weeks running the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this January, David McKean had to carry around two BlackBerrys—one for his new job, and one for his old. He'd spent the past nine years as John Kerry's chief of staff, so it took people a while to catch on that the senator had reappointed his indispensable sidekick. Not that McKean's had time to mind. He's been busy scheduling hearings, rounding up experts to testify, and overseeing a staff of 20, all while pushing his boss's foreign-policy agenda. Luckily, multitasking comes naturally to the South Hamilton native, whose third book, The Great Decision, is due out 3/2. Coauthored with Harvard roommate Cliff Sloan, it examines the political turmoil leading up to the momentous Marbury v. Madison case. Kerry approves, more or less. "Oh, he tells me I'm not working hard enough," McKean jokes, adding that's why "each book is getting shorter and shorter."

McKean met his wife, Kathleen Kaye, when the erstwhile model (that's her) was a fellow in Kerry's office in 1987.