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Centerview Partners, one of the financial world’s top independent investment banks, has long been known as a largely Democratic outpost. One of its leaders, Blair Effron, is among the most influential fund-raisers in Democratic politics, while a longtime counselor is Bob Rubin, the former Treasury secretary. Rahm Emanuel, the erstwhile Obama chief of staff, also worked for the firm.
This week, Centerview took a step that was widely seen as a counterbalance: It hired Reince Priebus, the first White House chief of staff in the first Trump administration and a finance chairman of Trump’s second inauguration committee, as a senior adviser. In other words, someone who can help the bank and its blue-chip clients “speak Republican” better in the Trump era.
It’s not the only firm looking. “This is a transactional administration,” Steve Lipin, the founder of Gladstone Place Partners, said on a panel at last week’s Tulane University Corporate Law Institute, a major gathering of mergers and acquisitions advisers.
Deal advisers have plumbed their Rolodexes for connections to anyone with pull in Trumpworld. (There are limits, one recruiting executive said: While relationships matter in this administration, the aim is to find someone who’s respected — but not “too MAGA.”)
These new hires underscore how much the business of mergers and acquisitions has evolved beyond dispensing advice on capital structures and valuations. Clients increasingly want to know how to navigate a global landscape pockmarked with military conflicts, trade battles, oil shocks, and political revolutions.
The latest challenge is a second Trump administration that is openly injecting culture-war considerations into regulation, including antitrust approval. A case in point: The Trump family business sued Capital One, accusing the lender of being “woke” and “debanking” it for political reasons — as the bank is seeking clearance for its $35 billion takeover of Discover Financial (Centerview is advising Capital One).
Government relations professionals are being hired to help lay out the landscape for a transaction, and in some cases to help make phone calls or bend the ears of lawmakers or regulatory officials.
Some corporate advisory businesses have also hired executives in the Priebus mold. This year, the Brunswick Group, a financial communications firm, hired Jim Bognet, an official in the first Trump administration. (It has also hired Kate Bedingfield, a White House communications director under Joe Biden.)
Others are building out teams to provide expertise and advice on operating in Washington and beyond:
In January, JPMorgan Chase said that it had created a geopolitical advisory group meant to draw together research and experts for clients. Leading its effort are Derek Chollet, a former chief of staff to Lloyd Austin, Biden’s defense secretary, and Lisa Sawyer, who did stints in the Biden and Obama administrations.
In 2023, Goldman Sachs announced the creation of a similar offering, the Goldman Sachs Global Institute. The group is led by George Lee, a longtime deal maker, and Jared Cohen, the firm’s president of global affairs and the founder of Google’s Jigsaw tech research and incubator unit.
The year before, Lazard created its geopolitical advisory unit, a 12-person team that also counts as advisers William McRaven, the former Navy admiral who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Ladin, and John Abizaid, a former general who commanded U.S. forces in the Middle East. Its recent projects for clients included gaming out escalations of China-Taiwan conflict and modeling potential Trump tariff situations.
About three to four years ago, Brian Moynihan, Bank of America’s C.E.O., pushed for the creation of a similar team…
and so on.
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