The Scoop
Rahm Emanuel, a veteran Democratic leader and political brawler widely seen as a 2028 presidential contender, is coming to Wall Street. Emanuel, who served most recently as Joe Biden’s ambassador to Japan, is rejoining investment bank Centerview Partners, where he worked from 2019 to 2021 counseling CEOs on mergers, regulation, and political matters.
Centerview is a logical place for Emanuel to hang his hat as he weighs a White House campaign. It’s home to Democratic insiders and party elders including its co-founder, Blair Effron, and former Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin, and has a client list whose CEOs would be valuable allies in a centrist run.
“I’m not done with public service, and I hope public service isn’t done with me,” Emanuel said in an interview.
For now, though, he’ll bring his rolodex and street-fighter political savvy to Centerview, which like all Wall Street advisers these days, is trying to help corporate clients navigate a political and regulatory landscape littered with landmines that has turned dealmaking into a high-wire act. A hoped-for pullback in antitrust enforcement hasn’t materialized and mergers are being held up by ideologically driven investigations, which means political advice is going at a premium in corporate boardrooms.
“CEOs and their boards are facing geopolitical and economic crosswinds that are new to them,” Emanuel said. “I look forward to working with my Centerview colleagues to help navigate through the new environment.”
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Centerview hired Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, Reince Priebus, Semafor scooped last month, and Emanuel’s return suggests that the political calculus isn’t entirely one-sided.
Emanuel also brings his experience as ambassador to Japan, which has emerged as a hotbed of corporate activity as years of “Abenomics” reforms kick in. Akihisa Nagashima, a member of Japan’s House of Representatives in the country’s Liberal Democratic Party, told Semafor last year that Emanuel had worked to align allies in the region against Russia. “I think he is the most active ambassador in history,” Nagashima said.