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— Regulatory —
 The last time Neal Wolin worked at the Treasury Department, he took his boss' job. Wolin, now deputy treasury secretary and second in command of the agency behind Timothy Geithner, has been the Obama administration's point man, lining up support for its drive to overhaul financial services regulation. Wolin is trying to persuade the financial services industry to support the plan. In his last stretch at Treasury, from 1995 to 2001, Wolin served as one of the agency's top lawyers, first as deputy general counsel under Edward Knight and then general counsel after Knight left to become chief legal officer of the National Association of Securities Dealers (now the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority). Whether Wolin, 47, would be in line to replace Geithner if the secretary leaves his post before the Obama administration is conjecture, but promotions seem to come easily for him. The Yale Law School graduate rose up the ranks of the Clinton White House's national security apparatus before moving to Treasury during his first round in the government. After serving as special assistant to three directors of the CIA early in the Clinton era, he came to the White House in 1993, first serving as deputy legal adviser to the National Security Council. A year later he became executive assistant to National Security Adviser Anthony Lake.
In 1995 he joined Knight at Treasury, where his national security expertise was put to use on the agency's anti-money-laundering and international financial crimes tracking efforts. "Neal's particular expertise in national security made him extremely effective in that wide range of issues where national security and economic policy cross," says Knight, now general counsel and chief regulatory officer of Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. "That kind of work never gets known to the public. That part of the iceberg is underwater, but it's extremely important at Treasury." Knight says his intelligence stands out, as does his capacity for work and his ethics. "He's as prodigious a worker as I've seen in my life and someone with very high standards, both professionally and personally," Knight says. After the Clinton administration ended, Wolin joined Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. as general counsel. He became president and chief operating officer of the company's property/casualty operations in 2007. Though the Hartford has suffered in the financial crisis, Wolin's p/c operation remains strong despite woes that have plagued Hartford's life insurance and investment advisory operations. Before joining the government, Wolin began his legal career as an associate in the Washington office of Wilmer Cutler Pickering LLP. He also spent some time as an adjunct lecturer at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, as an adjunct assistant professor at Brooklyn Law School and as a visiting fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. Along the way he also picked up a master's degree in developmental economics from Oxford University. In 2003, Wolin married Nicole Elkon, the past chief of staff and director of communications for the 9/11 United Services Group, which coordinates assistance to victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks and their families. Elkon's father, Andre, is director for private-client services at Oppenheimer & Co. Her mother, Mimi Liebeskind, is a well-known New York consultant to the fashion industry. Like her husband, Elkon served in the Clinton administration, first as press secretary at the U.S. Small Business Administration, then as special assistant to the president and deputy director of scheduling, then as director of planning at the National Security Council. Despite serving in the Clinton White House, they did not meet until 2001. Knight says Wolin's business experience makes him particularly valuable. "After spending the last 10 years in the private sector, he understands the business world and the boardroom; he's much more than a lawyer or general counsel now." In public, Wolin displays a better feel for the politics surrounding the financial bailouts, and the backlash it has created, than his boss. Geithner frequently equivocates when asked pointed questions, such as when he hedged after being asked at a congressional hearing whether there should be limits on the size of government interventions in financial firms. The exchange provided an avenue for critics to complain that the administration's legislation would lead to more bailouts. The next day Wolin tried to take some heat off without offering specific commitments, telling reporters that limiting the scope of government interventions is "something we're going to continue to work on." He added that a proposal to create a mechanism for the government to wind down insolvent firms would be designed "in a way that pays heed to the idea taxpayers should not be on the hook when firms fail," he said. Wolin, like Geithner, nevertheless insisted that the government should have "an appropriate set of tools" to wind down firms -- meaning money -- but stressed that the exact "contours" are still up for discussion. Despite Wolin's tenure in the private sector, he has been an unapologetic supporter of an overhaul proposal his former industry colleagues oppose -- the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. "The financial crisis was rooted, in no small part, in a basic failure of our consumer protection regime," he told a skeptical Financial Services Roundtable audience last month. "Consumers who trust that the market is well regulated -- that all financial firms will play by the rules and treat them fairly -- will make the choices that best suit their needs." While at the Hartford, Wolin lobbied Congress on behalf of the insurance industry for creation of a federal insurance charter that would allow carriers to operate nationwide under a single set of rules rather than be subject to separate ones for each state. Creation of a federal insurance charter was put on the Treasury's long-term plan before Wolin rejoined the government but is not part of the financial overhaul plan because of intense opposition from state regulators and independent insurance agents. Wolin stood behind the delay when he spoke to the roundtable, explaining that the financial overhaul plan doesn't need added resistance. The crowd wasn't happy, but with one of their own bluntly explaining the political reality, they appeared resigned to putting their top issue on the back burner. Perhaps they recognized what Wolin's government colleagues have known for a long time. Says one Clinton administration co-worker: "He's smart, has good judgment, gets along well with people and they notice." |
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