Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner moves into Private Equity

Tim Geithner left the treasury with two goals, the first being to write his own account of the financial crisis and the second to make some of his own money. His book is done and due to be published next year, so that is goal one. Last Saturday Mr. Geithner announced he is joining Warburg Pincus so that would be goal two. Mr Geithner will be joining the ranks of other public officials such as David Petraeus KKR's Chair of the Global Institute and Kenneth Mehlman who became their Head of Global Public Affairs.

Mr. Geithner's wealthier friends have said that he, "needs to make some money". Spending most of his career in government finance, in the treasury he made around $200,000 a year plus $411,000 a year and a $436,686 separation payment from the Federal bank of new york. This may seem like a lot of money but compared to the corporate salaries of his friends in the private sector it is not much.

Warburg Pincus trusts that they will get more than just high level contacts and insider knowledge of the treasury from Geithner. They know that he has proved himself as investment savvy. While working at the treasury Geithner dealt with hundreds of billions of dollars in  investments for financial institutions to prop up the economy.

“The roots of Warburg Pincus go back 45 years and we are really much more a global growth-oriented entrepreneur-centric investor,” says Chip Kaye, co-chief executive. “We have been active in starting and building businesses in energy, technology and healthcare; and we were very early investors in China and India. I think that’s one of the things that most attracted Tim – a broader investing context.”

“He supervised the management of what was, for a time, the largest investment portfolio in the world,” says Mr Millstein. “And though the public will never give him credit for it, he did it very successfully.”