Dina Powell, one of the most influential women in Donald Trump’s White House, is in talks to rejoin Goldman Sachs Group Inc. after stepping down as deputy national security adviser, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Powell oversaw philanthropic initiatives and impact investing at the bank before joining the then-nascent Trump administration at the start of 2017. The person with knowledge of the discussions asked not to be identified describing confidential deliberations, and company spokesman Andrew Williams declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal reported the talks earlier Thursday.
Powell, 44, told the president about her intentions to leave the White House last year. She wanted to spend more time with her family in New York, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg in December. Earlier this month, she was named a non-resident senior fellow for the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School.
While at Trump’s White House, she was closely involved with the administration’s efforts to broker a deal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and led a review of national security strategy. It marked a return to public service, after she was a personnel director and U.S. assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs in George W. Bush’s administration.
She joined the New York-based bank in 2007 and rose to partner — its highest rank — in 2010. For a time, she was the face of Goldman Sachs’s charitable activities and oversaw the firm’s 10,000 Women and 10,000 Small Business initiatives.