President Barack Obama will announce a major restructuring of his economic team Friday, including the selection of Gene Sperling to lead the National Economic Council, a White House official said.

Sperling, a policy adviser to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, was widely expected to be named to the post. He was NEC director for four years and deputy director for three years during the Clinton administration.

The White House announced in September that NEC Director Lawrence Summers would step down to return to the faculty at Harvard University. He will start his work at the school this month, according to a Harvard statement released Tuesday. 

The president will also announce Jason Furman as assistant to the president for economic policy and as the NEC’s principal deputy director. In addition, Obama will announce his intent to nominate Katharine Abraham to the Council of Economic Advisers and Heather Higginbottom as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Obama will make all of the announcements during a speech on the economy in Landover, Md., where he will tour a window company.

On Thursday, Obama named former Commerce Secretary William Daley as his new chief of staff. Meanwhile, the president is on the lookout for a new press secretary — spokesman Robert Gibbs announced Wednesday that he will step down early next month.