Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is joining the Wall Street investment firm Centerview Partners LLC, whose leaders include long-time friends and campaign donors.
Emanuel, whose term ended May 20, will open a Chicago office of Centerview and serve as an adviser to the boutique firm’s clients, according to a company news release. Blair Effron, the firm’s co-founder, praised Emanuel in a statement.
“Rahm’s leadership and vast experience providing strategic advice, coupled with a track record of successful planning and execution, will bring tremendous value to our firm and our clients,” Effron said. “Establishing a presence in Chicago is a logical next step for Centerview as we continue to grow, and it positions us to better serve existing and new clients throughout the Midwest.”
In the statement, Emanuel said he’s “excited to use my lifelong experience as an advisor and problem solver in both the public and private sectors in this next chapter of my career, and thrilled to be joining Centerview Partners — a pre-eminent firm that advises leading global companies.”
Emanuel made the surprise announcement last fall that he wouldn’t seek a third term as mayor. At the time, he already had raised more than $10 million toward a re-election bid.
Effron is an Emanuel campaign donor who has contributed $61,500 to the former mayor’s campaign, state records show. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, who also works at Centerview, has donated more than $70,000 to Emanuel’s campaign, including $25,000 in April 2018, state records show.
In 2014, Centerview served as an adviser to Time Warner on its proposed merger with Comcast that drew opposition from many who argued the deal would hurt consumers.
Emanuel penned an August 2014 letter to the FCC, encouraging regulators to support the deal, writing on city of Chicago letterhead that he believed the proposed merger would not “reduce choice, elevate prices or otherwise harm customers.”
Emanuel didn’t support the Time Warner deal because of Centerview, but because it was a good deal for ratepayers, a spokesman for the mayor said.
Emanuel on Wednesday rejected any notion that his work as mayor affected the hiring.
“You’re starting the clock at one time, but if you look at the spectrum, it goes back over 25 years,” Emanuel said.
He also pointed out he’s known Robert Pruzan, another Centerview founder, since 1999.
Emanuel previously spent more than two years as a Chicago investment banker at Wasserstein Perella & Co., from 1999 to 2002, a job he took after serving as a top aide to President Bill Clinton.
Emanuel went on to serve as a congressman before joining President Barack Obama’s administration as chief of staff. He left that job to run for mayor of Chicago after Mayor Richard M. Daley stepped down.
In his post-mayor life, Emanuel has also accepted positions as a writer for The Atlantic and as a special contributor at the ABC News network, which has drawn criticism from left-wing Democrats and some media critics who believe news outlets should be paying reporters instead of former politicians.
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