WASHINGTON--Michael Strautmanis -- the Chicagoan with deep ties to President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle and counselor to Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett -- will be leaving the White House at the end of next week. He will be taking a senior executive position with the Walt Disney Company's corporate citizenship team.

Strautmanis -- raised in Uptown, a graduate of St. Ignatius and the University of Illinois Champaign/Urbana for undergraduate and Law School -- joined Obama at the very beginning of his Senate term as his chief counsel, later becoming his Senate deputy chief of staff.

After the Obama 2008 presidential campaign, Strautmanis moved over to the White House where he was initially chief of staff overseeing the offices of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, operations in Jarrett's portfolio.