Kris Engskov

Background An Arkansas native from Berryville, Engskov had a childhood encounter with Clinton during a campaign visit to his home town in the 1970s. He then worked as an assistant press secretary for about two years and during that time, Clinton made an April Fools' Day announcement of Engskov to replace an injured Mike McCurry: Still hobbled from his knee surgery, Clinton deadpanned that McCurry had "made a fool of himself" by falling down and hurting his knee... "until we can bring him back to full health, Chris Engskov is going to do the daily briefing today, and he will be my press secretary during Mike's absence," Clinton said. Engskov, 25, is an Arkansas native who works in the press office. "I thought we ought to have a presidential secretary who doesn't have an accent," Clinton quipped. Engskov became the president's body man in December 1997.

Post-Clinton administration In June 2000 he left the White House to work as an analyst at the Madrona Venture Group in Seattle. As of 2009, Engskov was serving as a member of the King County Task Force on Regional Human Services.

On July 20, 2011, it was announced that Engskov would become the new managing director of Starbucks UK and Ireland starting in September 2011. John Culver, president of Starbucks Coffee International, said of the move: "Kris brings a great deal of operational and public affairs experience to the role, and is an ideal candidate to continue the momentum Starbucks has achieved in this region. The addition of Kris to the team is a further sign of our commitment to international markets as a key growth engine for the company." On January 3, 2019, Engskov announced he would be the next president of Aegis Living, a Bellevue, Washington-based assisted living and memory care company, and take the role in the spring of 2019.

Other The character Charlie Young from The West Wing, played by actor Dulé Hill, is based in part on Engskov. Former Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers, who served as a consultant to the show, arranged for Hill to meet his real-life counterpart in 1999 when the show was just beginning. Engskov later joked that unlike Charlie, he would never have dated the president's daughter out of a concern for "job security."

Author Christopher Farnsworth met with Engskov to discuss White House operations while preparing to write the 2010 vampire novel Blood Oath, and thanked Engskov in the acknowledgements in the book.