President-elect Donald Trump is seriously considering Marc Rowan, the CEO of private equity giant Apollo Global Management, as his new Treasury Secretary, according to a New York Times report. Based on sources the Times says are “close” to Trump, Rowan has become a likely frontrunner as Trump grows frustrated with other candidates.
At a time when regulators have pushed to rein in risky behavior by the private equity industry, the appointment of one of their own would almost certainly be a huge boon to the industry. At stake are private markets that accounting firm EY earlier this year estimated to be worth $24.4 trillion—much of it driven by industry giants Apollo, Blackstone and KKR.
Rowan has a lot going for him. The Times reported Trump is impressed with Apollo’s CEO, who has been outspoken in his support of Israel and other Trump positions. Last week Trump appointed Rowan’s fellow Apollo board member and former SEC chair, Jay Clayton, as the U.S. attorney for the powerful Southern District of New York, which is known for prosecuting white collar crime. Former Republican Senator Pat Toomey joined Apollo’s board last February.
The wealth obsessed Trump is likely impressed by Rowan’s estimated $8.6 billion fortune, and by Rowan and his wife, Carolyn, reportedly having donated $1 million to Trump’s 2020 election bid. The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that Rowan is interested in the role and he’s expected to meet with the President-elect at his Mar-a-Lago compound later this week.
Neither Apollo nor the Trump media team responded to request for comment.
SEC fails to expand private equity oversight
So how exactly could Rowan help private equity? Prior to the Great Recession, banks facilitated the lion’s share of private equity deals, leaving specialist houses like Blackstone, Apollo Global Management and Carlyle Group to fight over the scraps. As banks became more heavily regulated and more risk averse in the wake of the crisis, these private equity firms grew to superpowers larger than many of their bank competitors.
Since 2007 the global assets under management by those three firms alone rose from less than $2 trillion to more than $8 trillion, according to a Financial Times report. New York-based Apollo Global became a standout among standouts, now managing $733 billion in assets, largely from private wealth clients.
Though the DOJ has escalated its enforcement actions against private equity firms in recent years, regulations have so far amounted to a hodgepodge of controls. The SEC last year attempted to expand its remit by proposing measures that would have required private fund managers to provide expansive quarterly statements detailing fund fees, expenses, and performance. But United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated those advisor rules in June.
Enter the U.S. Treasury Department
But even as the SEC’s attempt to rein things in on the private equity side failed, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and other regulators in May finalized separate rules that would require banks to share private equity exposure. According to law firm Mayer Brown, the new rules are set to take effect December 31, 2024, with the first reports expected to be filed in the first quarter of 2025.
As the U.S. Treasury Secretary, Rowan would not only oversee the OCC, but the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the IRS and the Inspector General, among other Bureaus.
Trump’s last Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, also came from the private equity world, where he ran Liberty Strategic Capital. He was selected on the expectation he would cut regulations, and after departing the position went onto sign a number of lucrative deals including a 5.5% stake in Lionsgate and a 7.7% stake in New York Community Bancorp.
Other candidates for Trump’s new Treasury secretary include former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh and Howard Lutnick, the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald whose enthusiasm for the job is reportedly rubbing Trump the wrong way. Also in the running is Scott Bessent, the founder of the investment firm Key Square Capital Management, who Trump advisor Elon Musk called a “business-as-usual” candidate on his social media platform.