Sam Baptista-the most tireless, upbeat advocate of financial reform in Washington-is changing jobs.
After 12 years as president of the Financial Services Council, Mr. Baptista starts June 15 as chief lobbyist for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. He succeeds Kelly McNamara Corley, who was promoted in late March to senior vice president and general counsel of the company's Discover Financial Services unit.
"It is just a world-class opportunity," said Mr. Baptista, who as managing director of government relations will lead a 15-member staff responsible for lobbying at the international, federal, and state levels. "It's going to allow me to broaden my horizons." But he added that he will remain an ardent promoter of the elusive reform bill.
Brian C. Conklin, the council's legislative affairs director, will become acting president of the trade group. Michael E. Patterson, who is vice chairman of J.P. Morgan & Co. and chairman of the council, will lead the search for a permanent president.
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Carol J. Parry may want to be a Federal Reserve Board governor after all. The executive vice president of community development at Chase Manhattan Corp. rejected the job last year but now reportedly is reconsidering. A Chase spokeswoman said Ms. Parry had no comment. She would fill the seat vacated a year ago by Susan M. Phillips, who left the Fed to become dean of George Washington University's business school.
In a New York University commencement address Thursday, Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin gave no hint as to his next career move. But it almost sounded as though he was becoming a philosophy professor.
"The only certainty is that there is no certainty," Mr. Rubin told the graduates. "If there are no absolutes, then all decisions become matters of judging the probability of different outcomes and the costs and benefits of each. Then, on that basis, you can make a good decision."
When Mr. Rubin announced a day earlier that he would leave government in July, he elicited near-universal praise as the best Treasury secretary since Alexander Hamilton.
So how will he follow 26 years as a Wall Street star, and a remarkably successful run in Washington?
No certainty on that either.
