Neel Kashkari Has Been Tapped to Oversee the $700 Billion Dollar Bailout Program

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, 35 year-old Neel Kashkari is being tapped by Henry Paulson to "oversee the $700 billion dollar program to buy distressed assets from financial institutions."

The article goes on to say that Kashkari is expected to be named "interim head of Treasury's new Office of Financial Stability" on Monday. Kashkari is being named on an interim basis and isn't expected to remain in the position past January, when the Bush Administration comes to an end.

Neel Kashkari is currently a Treasury assistant secretary for international affairs, and was a former Goldman Sachs banker. This continues the procession of former Goldman Sachs employees into key positions in the government. Henry Paulson was the former Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs; Ken Wilson, chairman of the Goldman Sachs Financial Institutions Group, was recently asked by George Bush to help advise Henry Paulson; prior to that, Robert Rubin (former Vice Chairman and Co-COO of Goldman Sachs) served as Treasury Secretary during the first and second Clinton Administrations - the list goes on and on.

Kashkari's biography on the U.S. treasury website says that he was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs in San Francisco prior to joining the Treasury department. Prior to that, Kashkari was a R&D Principal Investigator at TRW in Redondo Beach, where he "developed technology for NASA space science missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope".

Kashhari graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Bachelor's and Masters in Engineering. He also obtained an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School.

Treasury is expected to begin soliciting bids from asset managers this week, and could hire several managers before the week is over, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Source: Paulson to Tap Adviser to Run Rescue Program - WSJ


Filed under: The Economic Meltdown | General Market News