Michele Davis

Last updated
Davis in 2006 Michele A. Davis, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury.jpg
Davis in 2006

Michele A. Davis is the Global Head of Corporate Affairs at Morgan Stanley with responsibility for media relations, internal communications and philanthropy. [1] She is also a member of the Firm's Management Committee.

Contents

Between 2001 and 2009, Michele served in a number of senior communications positions in the U.S. Treasury Department, Fannie Mae, and the White House. Among her posts in the Bush White House, Michele served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Communications. In her last government position, she served as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs and Director of Policy Planning in the U.S. Department of Treasury for former Secretary Hank Paulson. She was also a senior member of the Treasury team addressing the Financial crisis of 2007–2009.

Michele was portrayed by Cynthia Nixon in Too Big to Fail .

She was later a partner at the Brunswick Group, a global corporate communications advisory firm.

Early life and education

Davis is a native of Louisville, Kentucky. She earned a B.S. in Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1988 and an M.A. in economics from American University. [2]

Early career

She began working as an advocate for free market economics at Citizens for a Sound Economy from 1991 to 1994. From 1997 to January 2001, Michele served as Communications Director for the House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), during which time she advised Congressional leadership on communications strategy for the House agenda.

Years in the U.S. Department of Treasury and Fannie Mae

Michele Davis was nominated by President George W. Bush to be Assistant Treasury Secretary for Public Affairs on February 8, 2001. She was then confirmed by a unanimous vote by the U.S. Senate on August 3, 2001, and sworn in by Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill on August 7, 2001. In this role, Davis was "the Department's lead representative for media, business, professional trade organizations, consumer groups and the public." [3] Davis also oversaw the Office of Public Liaison and the Office of Public Education. [4]

Davis did not stay in the Treasury Department for long, however. She soon went on to work as the Senior Vice President for Regulatory Policy at Fannie Mae in 2002, where she was "responsible for the company's public policy research activities and policy development on a wide range of issues related to mortgage financing and the capital markets" and assumed the duties of "managing the company's relationship with its regulators." Her predecessor at Fannie Mae, Arne L. Christenson, moved on to a new position as Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and head of American Express Company's Washington, DC office. [3]

In 2005, Michele was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Global Outreach.

Mitt Romney presidential campaign

On August 2, 2012, Davis was hired by the Mitt Romney presidential campaign as a corporate public relations specialist to help guide their response to questions about Romney's time in the private sector with Bain Capital. [5]

Political views

In 2013, Davis was a signatory to an amicus curiae brief submitted to the Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage during the Hollingsworth v. Perry case. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States National Security Council</span> U.S. federal executive national security and intelligence forum

The United States National Security Council (NSC) is the principal forum used by the president of the United States for consideration of national security, military, and foreign policy matters. Based in the White House, it is part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, and composed of senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John W. Snow</span> 73rd United States Secretary of the Treasury

John William Snow is an American economist, attorney, and businessman who is the former CEO of CSX Corporation and served as the 73rd United States secretary of the treasury under U.S. President George W. Bush. He replaced Secretary Paul H. O'Neill on February 3, 2003 and was succeeded by Henry Paulson on July 3, 2006. Snow submitted a letter of resignation on May 30, 2006, effective "after an orderly transition period for my successor." Snow announced on June 29, 2006 that he had completed his last day on the job; Robert M. Kimmitt served as acting secretary until Paulson was sworn in. Snow has since worked as chairman of Cerberus Capital Management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paula Dobriansky</span> American diplomat (born 1955)

Paula Jon Dobriansky is an American diplomat, public official, and foreign policy expert who served as Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs (2001–2009) and the President's Envoy to Northern Ireland (2007–2009). A specialist in Central/East European affairs and the former Soviet Union, trans-Atlantic relations, and political-military affairs, Dobriansky held key senior roles in the administrations of five U.S. presidents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Zoellick</span> 11th President of the World Bank Group

Robert Bruce Zoellick is an American public official and lawyer who was the 11th president of the World Bank Group, a position he held from July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2012. He was previously a managing director of Goldman Sachs, United States Deputy Secretary of State and U.S. Trade Representative, from February 7, 2001, until February 22, 2005. Zoellick has been a senior fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs since ending his term with the World Bank. He is currently a Senior Counselor at Brunswick Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert M. Kimmitt</span> American politician

Robert Michael Kimmitt was United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury under President George W. Bush. He was nominated by President Bush on June 29, 2005. The United States Senate unanimously confirmed him on July 29, 2005, and he was sworn into office on August 16, 2005. Kimmitt served through the end of the Bush administration, leaving office on January 20, 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Stanzel</span>

Scott Michael Stanzel is an American political advisor who served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy press secretary in the George W. Bush administration from September 2006 to January 2009. After leaving government service, Stanzel has been employed by Microsoft and Amazon. He now works for Capital One as managing vice president of corporate communications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Fratto</span>

Salvatore Antonio "Tony" Fratto was deputy assistant and deputy press secretary to former United States President George W. Bush.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White House Office</span> Part of the Executive Office of the President of the U.S.

The White House Office is an entity within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). The White House Office is headed by the White House chief of staff, who is also the head of the Executive Office of the President. The staff work for and report directly to the president, including West Wing staff and the president's senior advisers. Almost all of the White House Office staff are political appointees of the president, do not require Senate confirmation and can be dismissed at the discretion of the president.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mina Nguyen</span>

Mina Nguyen is an American executive at Jane Street Capital. In October 2017, she was appointed as a member of the SEC's Investor Advisory Committee. Prior to Jane Street, she was a Managing Director at AQR Capital Management and senior adviser to its founder Cliff Asness. Nguyen was deputy assistant secretary of Business Affairs at the US Treasury Department from 2006 to 2007, appointed by then-Secretary Hank Paulson. Her career in business and government has revolved around regulations for private pools of capital, retirement security, leverage and derivative use at investment funds and ESG investing. In the 2004 US Presidential Campaign she served as National Business Director for the Bush-Cheney ticket.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Randal Quarles</span> American private equity investor and attorney (born 1957)

Randal Keith Quarles is an American private equity investor and attorney who served as the first Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve for supervision from 2017 to 2021. He concurrently served as the chair of the Financial Stability Board from 2018 to 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendy Sherman</span> American diplomat (born 1949)

Wendy Ruth Sherman is an American diplomat who served as the United States deputy secretary of state from April 2021 to July 2023. She was a professor of the practice of public leadership and director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, a senior counselor at Albright Stonebridge Group, and a senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rick Davis (political consultant)</span> American political consultant

Richard H. Davis, Jr. is an American political consultant. He previously served as a partner and chief operating officer of Pegasus Capital Advisors L.P., a private equity firm specializing in sustainable development projects. He was a managing partner of the business development and public affairs consulting firm Davis-Manafort, located in Alexandria, Virginia. He was the national campaign manager of John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. In that capacity, he oversaw the development and implementation of all campaign strategy and policy development. Davis also served McCain as national campaign manager for his 2000 presidential campaign.

James B. Lockhart III is an American U.S. Navy officer, business executive, and, since September 2009, Vice Chairman of WL Ross & Co, which manages $9 billion of private equity investments, a hedge fund and a Mortgage Recovery Fund. It is a subsidiary of Invesco, a Fortune 500 investment management firm. He coordinates WL Ross's investments in financial services firms and mortgages. Lockhart serves co-chairs the Bipartisan Policy Center's Commission on Retirement Security and Personal Savings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoff Morrell (spokesperson)</span> American public affairs official (born 1968)

Geoffrey S. Morrell is the president of Global Strategy & Communications at Teneo, a public relations and advisory firm. In 2022, he was the Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Disney for three months before resigning. He served as the Executive Vice President of Communications and Advocacy at BP from 2011 to 2021. From 2007 to 2011, he was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs and the press secretary for the U.S. Department of Defense.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emil Henry</span>

Emil W. Henry, Jr. is an American business leader and public policy expert on economics, financial institutions, capital markets, and financial regulation. He is a former Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions of the U.S. Treasury Department serving from 2005 to 2007 under Secretaries John Snow and Hank Paulson. He is the CEO and Managing Partner of Henry Tiger LLC and Tiger Infrastructure Partners, a private equity firm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Nason</span>

David George Nason is an American lawyer, government official and corporate executive from Washington, DC. He served as the president and CEO of GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of General Electric (GE) from 2013 to 2018. Previously at GE, he was the Chief Regulatory Officer and Compliance Leader at GE Capital. Nason is one of 190 GE officers globally. From 2005–2009 he served as Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions under Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, during which time he was a key architect of the federal government's response to the financial crisis of 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mari Maseng Will</span>

Mari Maseng Will is a Republican adviser who has worked for President Ronald Reagan, Senator Robert Dole and Governor Rick Perry. She was also an adviser to Scott Walker's presidential campaign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Burton (political consultant)</span> American political consultant

Bill Burton is an American political consultant and communication strategist who served as Deputy White House Press Secretary in the Obama Administration from 2009 to 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Goldstein (diplomat)</span> American diplomat & government official (born 1952)

Irwin Steven Goldstein is a former American diplomat, government official, and businessman who served as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs at the United States Department of State during Secretary Rex Tillerson's tenure in the Trump Administration. He was also Assistant to the Secretary and Director of Public Affairs at the United States Department of the Interior under Manuel Lujan Jr. during the Presidency of George H. W. Bush.

References

  1. "Morgan Stanley Hires Bush White House's Davis to Oversee PR". Bloomberg.com. 2013-04-29. Retrieved 2023-05-24.
  2. American Action Network Archived 2010-12-11 at the Wayback Machine , Michele Davis.
  3. 1 2 PR Newswire, Fannie Mae Announces Departure of Arne Christenson; Michele Davis To Serve as Acting Senior Vice President - Regulatory Policy
  4. New York Times January 12, 2002
  5. Buzzfeed, Romney Hires PR Vet To Bite Back on Bain Attacks
  6. Avlon, John (28 February 2013). "The Pro-Freedom Republicans Are Coming: 131 Sign Gay Marriage Brief" . Retrieved 26 May 2019 via www.thedailybeast.com.