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Hillary Clinton confidante to lead Harvard politics institute

Maggie Williams, currently a management consultant, has held jobs with both Bill and Hillary Clinton.Associated Press/File 1995/Associated Press

Maggie Williams, a longtime friend of and adviser to Hillary Clinton, will take over the Institute of Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School, saying she wants to “get young people energized in politics on their own terms.”

Williams, who served as Clinton’s final campaign manager during the 2008 presidential race and was widely credited with extending her chances during the Democratic primary, said she planned to step into the directorship before school begins in the fall.

She will replace Trey Grayson, a former US Senate candidate from Kentucky who has held the post since 2011.

“The prospect of being a party to the people who are the future of politics was really irresistible,” Williams said Thursday.

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Williams was Clinton’s chief of staff when Clinton was first lady and worked as an assistant to President Bill Clinton. Williams said she came to know Hillary Clinton, who has said she is considering a 2016 presidential bid, while working at the Children’s Defense Fund, where Clinton served on the board.

Williams has also served as the former president’s chief of staff at the Clinton Foundation, one of his post-presidential initiatives. She is a partner at Griffin Williams Critical Point Management, a consulting firm.

She has served on the institute’s senior advisory committee and was a fellow there in 2005.

Williams, who lives in Westerly, R.I., said she had “expressed an interest” in the job, and institute officials asked her to apply.

“They checked on my references, extensively,” she said, laughing.

Williams said she did not use the Clintons as references or discuss the position with them until “after I knew that I had actually accepted the job.”

Asked whether she expected Clinton to run in 2016, Williams said, “I don’t know. I think that’s a question best left to her.”

Williams took the reins of Clinton’s 2008 campaign amid a shakeup as Clinton struggled with Barack Obama’s strength in the early primaries, replacing another longtime aide, Patti Solis Doyle.

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Jim O’Sullivan can be reached at Jim.OSullivan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JOSreports.