Michael Keith Deaver (April 11, 1938 – August 18, 2007) was a member of President Ronald Reagan's White House staff who served as White House Deputy Chief of Staff under James Baker III and Donald Regan from January 1981 to May 1985.

Deaver worked for IBM, served in the United States Air Force, and later was executive director of the Santa Clara County Republican Party.

[7] Though initially he disliked the idea of moving to Washington, D.C., he ultimately agreed and was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff under President Reagan in 1981.

As Deputy Chief of Staff, Deaver worked primarily on media management, forming how the public perceived Reagan, sometimes by engineering press events so that the White House set the networks' agenda for covering him.

[8][9] He was convicted on three of five counts of perjury stemming from statements to a congressional subcommittee and federal grand jury investigating his lobbying activities with administration officials.

[5] Deaver also worked at the Washington, D.C. office of Edelman, a public relations agency, a role he held from 1992 to 2006, ultimately as chairman of the D.C.

[4][5] In a 2001 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Deaver said: "I've always said the only thing I did is light [Reagan] well... My job was filling up the space around the head.

"[12] According to Nancy Reagan, Deaver's greatest skill "was in arranging what were known as good visuals—televised events or scenes that would leave a powerful symbolic image in people's minds.