May 29, 2009 - Harry J. Wilson - Obama Auto Team, Washington D.C.

Young Hedge-Fund Executive Helps Steer Obama Auto Team

In the effort to save General Motors Corp., the U.S. field general is a little-known 37-year-old named Harry J. Wilson.

Young Hedge-Fund Executive Helps Steer Obama Auto Team

In the effort to save General Motors Corp., the U.S. field general is a little-known 37-year-old named Harry J. Wilson.

A former hedge-fund star and lifelong Republican, Mr. Wilson has emerged as a key voice inside President Barack Obama's auto task force, leading a small clique known as the "deals and diligence team."

The team does much of the analytical research that underpins the task force's policy decisions, conducting interviews, touring auto plants and poring over financial records. That research has given Mr. Wilson a unique perch from which to influence decisions that are pushing the U.S. into its greatest, and most costly, peacetime industrial intervention.

He isn't doing it for the money. Following stints at Blackstone Group and Goldman Sachs, Mr. Wilson became a partner at Silver Point Capital, a hedge fund based in Greenwich, Conn. Last August he retired at age 36, eager to spend time with his wife and young daughters in Scarsdale, N.Y.

But then the economy crashed, devastating new-car sales and rendering GM and Chrysler insolvent. On Jan. 31, Mr. Wilson sent an email to Steven Rattner, the private-equity investor who was later chosen to lead the Obama administration's auto-task force. In the email, Mr. Wilson expressed his desire to help restructure Detroit.

He also described his experience in restructuring distressed assets. A roster of Silver Point investments listed by data service Capital IQ shows the firm taking stakes in a range of companies including oil and gas exploration firms, an insurance broker and a television broadcaster.

The pitch made a big impression on Mr. Rattner, who had never heard of Mr. Wilson. The email combined a blue-chip resume -- undergraduate and MBA degrees from Harvard University -- with a blue-collar history. Mr. Wilson's father had been a bartender, his mother a factory worker who had been laid off three times from dying textile mills in Johnstown, N.Y.

That Mr. Wilson would feel compelled to step forward doesn't surprise Andy Susi, Mr. Wilson's best friend from childhood. During their years at Johnstown High -- where Mr. Wilson was the Class of 1989 valedictorian -- the local textile industry collapsed, creating an economic crisis. "Harry never forgot where he came from, never forgot that there are people really struggling out there," said Mr. Susi, senior counsel at Spacenet Inc., a satellite company.

Since joining the auto task force, Mr. Wilson has declined opportunities for publicity, including a request for comment for this article. But in a testament to his hometown loyalties, he made an exception for the Leader-Herald, the Johnstown newspaper. "I think it's very important we have a domestic auto industry," he told the paper.

After Mr. Rattner hired him, Mr. Wilson on March 13 dispatched a mass email to professional acquaintances, seeking candidates for a handful of positions on the task force, ranging from principals with eight to 12 years of experience to associates with two to five years.

Ideal candidates would be "sufficiently intellectually and professionally nimble [to] take on any variety of independent work streams and drive to a well thought out recommendation. The right person must be comfortable with work that ranges from the sublime to the truly administrative."

The gig would last from six to 12 months. "Compensation = government wages," the email said. "Any candidate must be willing to work extremely long hours for the duration of the project."

The team that Messrs. Wilson and Rattner assembled ranges from the well-known, such as Matthew A. Feldman, a former Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP partner specializing in bankruptcy and reorganizations, to up-and-comers such as Clay Calhoon, a young Ivy League graduate who recently completed a two-year internship as a Walt Disney Co. analyst. "Borderline genius at crunching numbers" a Disney spokesman said of Mr. Calhoon.

A spokesperson for the task force declined to comment on behalf of individual members, calling it a team effort. One administration official, however, described Mr. Wilson as having "a deep sense of mission, of the importance of keeping these companies from liquidating and putting potentially millions of people out of work."

The spokesperson also described the team as too busy to conduct interviews, an assertion that jives with the experiences of Mr. Susi, Mr. Wilson's childhood friend. "If I get an email from him these days, it's always time-stamped at one or two in the morning," said Mr. Susi.

Lately Mr. Wilson has been splitting his time between offices at the GM headquarters in Detroit and the Treasury Department in Washington. In Detroit, Mr. Wilson quickly erased any concerns about a just-the-numbers-please approach. During a tour of products in the works, "I could hardly drag him away from the Cadillac CTS V," said GM Vice Chairman Robert Lutz.

Mr. Wilson has expressed interest in a political career. "I certainly have a potential interest in public office," he told the Leader-Herald. As president of the Harvard Republican Club in 1991, he made a concerted effort to increase its appeal to women. "Harry was among the most significant voices in favor of the 'big tent' approach," said Colin Motley, current president of the club.

Original Story - Wall Street Journal