New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday appointed former U.S. Treasury official and banker Robert Steel as deputy mayor for economic development.
“His time in the public and private sectors and academic world gives him a diversity of experience that will be invaluable to us as he takes on this new role,” Bloomberg said in a press release. “New York City is working through a difficult economic period, and now more than ever we need to find new ways to create jobs today and implement innovative measures to grow New York City’s economy over the long-term.”
Steel began a 28-year stint at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in 1976. He rose to co-head of its equities division in 1996 and then served as vice chairman of the firm in 2002. Later he taught a lecture and seminar course on U.S. financial market regulation at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. In 2006 he became undersecretary for domestic finance at the Treasury Department, where he served for two years. He subsequently became president and chief executive officer of Wachovia Bank, playing a lead role its merger with Wells Fargo.
Steel replaces Robert Lieber, who last month announced he was resigning to take a job as a senior executive at affiliates of Island Capital Group LLC, a New York-based real estate banking and asset management firm.
