Former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is finally jumping to the private sector.
Warburg Pincus announced on Saturday that Geithner would join the private equity firm in March as president and managing director. The move adds him to a long list of former government officials holding the reins of major financial firms.
Unlike his predecessor, Henry Paulson, Geithner came to Treasury by way of the public sector, serving as head of the New York Federal Reserve. He was deeply involved in the government’s response to the meltdown of the financial industry in 2008 and has faced harsh criticism for his involvement in creating the government's “too big to fail” approach to the mega-banks behind the crisis.
After stepping down in January, Geithner served as a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. While this is his first major position since leaving the government, he is not the first former Treasury secretary to use his expertise on the complexities of regulation for profit. Bill Clinton cabinet member Robert Rubin served on the board of Citigroup, one of the banks that drove the market crash through risky investments.
Accounts of the financial crisis and recovery have not been kind to Geithner's Treasury. Former Troubled Asset Relief Program Inspector General Neil Barofsky criticized Geithner for not being transparent enough about how public money was being spent to help troubled banks.
Warburg Pincus is a 47-year old private equity firm with offices around the world. It claims to manage $35 billion in assets.