President Obama on Friday will tap Austan Goolsbee--the Chicagoan who advised Obama on economic policy since his 2004 Illinois Senate campaign-- to chair the Council of Economic Advisors to replace Christina Romer, who departed earlier this month, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

Obama will make the announcement at Friday's White House press conference. The elevation of Goolsbee, 41, means Obama dipped inside his circle of trusted advisors already in place in the White House, bringing continuity to his economic team.

Goolsbee is staff director and chief economist on the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board and is also a member of the Council of Economic Advisers. Goolsbee joined the administration after being a top economic advisor to Obama's presidential campaign.

Goolsbee is on leave as the Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Romer departed on Sept. 3, to return to the University of California, Berkeley, where she was an economics professor and where her son was starting high school this fall.