Harris economic policy draws on Biden alums Brian Deese, Mike Pyle

Economist Brian Deese has begun advising Vice President Kamala Harris as she develops her economic policy plan, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Deese is a former director of President Joe Biden‘s National Economic Council and a fellow at MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research.

Harris has said she plans to release her brand new presidential campaign’s first formal platform — focused on lifting up the middle class — in the coming days.

As Harris and her team have been putting together the policy plan, Deese has been a key advisor and sounding board for Harris, said the people, who were granted anonymity in order to discuss internal campaign operations.

Harris is also working with Mike Pyle, a former deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics in the Biden White House, these people said.

Both Deese and Pyle are alums of asset management giant BlackRock, key Wall Street experience that they bring to the Harris team. Pyle was global chief investment strategist at BlackRock. Deese did three year stint as the company’s head of sustainable investing.

Another key figure back who is back in the fold is Deanne Millison, Harris’ chief economic adviser until 2023, a person with direct knowledge told CNBC. Millison currently works as a lobbyist for Ford Motor Co.

Deese did not return requests for comment. Pyle did not reply to a request for comment sent through Macro Advisory Partners, where he is a senior advisor. A spokesperson for Ford did not immediately return a request for comment.

Along with Pyle and Deese, former senior Treasury official Brian Nelson is also advising Harris on policy. So is longtime White House senior advisor Gene Sperling.

Deese is part of a small group of advisors who are helping Harris and her team develop policy proposals that dovetail with Biden’s broader economic agenda. As Biden’s vice president for the past three years, Harris has been a vocal champion of his economic recovery plan, both across the country and around the globe.

But now that she is the Democratic nominee, Harris has so far offered few indications of how she might shift course to carve out a slightly different version of Biden’s economic agenda.

Her barnstorm tour of battleground states last week devoted little time to specific details, like tax policy and jobs.

For now, Harris campaign spokesman Charles Lutvak pointed CNBC for policy outlines to Harris’ recent remarks to…