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Big Bucks for Blair at JP Morgan

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
Financial Times - Jan 9, 2008
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/be4ed2c4-befa-11dc-8c61-0000779fd2ac.html

Blair Takes Advisory Position at JPMorgan

By David Wighton

NEW YORK -- Tony Blair is joining one of the Wall Street's best-known
banks in what the former prime minister told the Financial Times
would be the first of a series of positions he expects to take in
the private sector.

Mr Blair, who stepped down as prime minister last year, is to become
a part-time adviser to JPMorgan, where he will use his experience
and contacts to provide political and strategic advice to the US
bank and participate in some client events. Mr Blairbs income from
the job has not been disclosed. However, one New York recruitment
consultant said it was likely to be more than $1 million (L500,000)
a year.

Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan's chief executive, said Mr Blair would be
"enormously valuable" to the company. "There are only a handful of
people in the world who have the knowledge and relationships that
he has."

Speaking to the Financial Times, Mr Blair said that he expected to
agree to "a small handful" of similar appointments with other
companies in different sectors.

"I have always been interested in commerce and the impact of
globalisation. Nowadays, the intersection between politics and the
economy in different parts of the world, including the emerging
markets, is very strong."

Such advisory jobs are popular with former world leaders. Sir John
Major, Mr Blair's predecessor, and George H.W.b      Bush, the
former US president, both became advisers to Carlyle, the US private
equity firm.

Since leaving office, Mr Blair, who is believed to have a large
mortgage to pay on a house in Connaught Square, London, has joined
the international conference circuit. He was paid $500,000 for one
speech in China. Mr Blair declined to say how much he would be paid
by JPMorgan.

Mr Blair's move comes a month after Jonathan Powell, his former
chief of staff, landed a full-time job with JPMorgan's rival, Morgan
Stanley.

Mr Blair, who is serving as an international envoy to the Middle
East, said he planned to launch an interfaith foundation this year
and was likely to do some work to help tackle climate change.

In the longer term, he is being promoted as a candidate to be the
first full-time president of the European Union by Nicolas Sarkozy,
the French president. "I have learnt not to speculate about those
sorts of things," Mr Blair said.

The JPMorgan job was brokered by Robert Barnett, the Washington
lawyer who also negotiated a reported L5 million advance for Mr
Blair's memoirs.

Mr Barnett said that when Mr Blair stepped down, he was approached
by a variety of companies seeking relationships, including "more
than half a dozen financial services companies."

Mr Dimon, who is one of the leading Democrats on Wall Street, said
he phoned Mr Blair personally. "I went to visit him and we hit it
off."

He said it was important to both men "to try to make the world a
better place and have a bit of fun doing it."
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