Think the revolving door for Morgan Stanley's diaspora of clutch interests goes only from the private sector outward, with the recent appointment of MS' darling Mary Jo White [12](who will promptly recuse herself in virtually all major cases involved her former clients at Debevoise for years to come) to head the SEC? Think again. Moments ago, Reuters reported [13]that according to a memo sent internally today, Morgan Stanley has hired Michele Davis, "a public relations official and policy director who helped shape the Treasury Department's strategy during the financial crisis, to become global head of corporate affairs, according to a bank memo sent on Monday."
Michele Davis will report to Vice Chairman Tom Nides, according to the memo from Nides and CEO James Gorman. She has worked "at the nexus of political and financial media throughout her career," said the memo, which was sent to employees and obtained by Reuters.
Davis is taking a position that was held by Jeanmarie McFadden who retired in February.
Davis worked under former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson during the financial crisis in 2008. She had previously held posts at Fannie Mae and at the White House, where she was a deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor for communications.
One could wonder just what benefits MS and other Wall Street firms incurred courtesy of Ms. White's benevolence in the days following Lehman's failure, and/or what the promised benefits to the said former Treasury staffer were from Morgan Stanley as a result of the preceding, but that would be trivial.
After all who cares: we are at a point in time in US history when the chief advisor to the US Treasury on its borrowing needs is none other than the COO of JPMorgan. Everything else should really be a logical continuation of this mindboggling state.
And yes, the revolving door goes both ways. Hence the name.
For those curious to learn some more about Ms Davis, here she is presenting, hilariously, on the topic of "Too Big To Fail"