President Donald Trump regularly criticized the financial industry during his populist run to the White House. | AP Photo Wall St. relieved as Trump picks Goldman banker as Treasury deputy

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated one of the more low-profile but high-powered bankers on Wall Street to serve as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s deputy.

Jim Donovan, a Goldman Sachs partner chosen to serve as deputy secretary, is expected to play a critical role in helping Mnuchin manage the sprawling Treasury Department and push through major legislative goals including fundamental re-writes of the corporate and individual tax codes.

Progressives will almost certainly target Donovan as yet another Goldman banker joining an administration already packed with former executives from the powerhouse bank, including National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and top White House advisers Steve Bannon and Dina Powell.

Trump regularly knocked the financial industry during his populist run to the White House, singling out Goldman for specific criticisms. Trump’s final ad of the campaign portrayed Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein as a sinister force of globalism. He criticized Ted Cruz’s wife for her work at Goldman and his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, for her paid speeches to the Wall Street bank.

The nomination of Donovan, a Goldman Sachs partner who helped raise money for both Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush, comes after reports emerged that White House chief of staff Reince Priebus had pushed back against Mnuchin’s selection for the Treasury deputy job.

Donovan, who lives in Virginia, joined Goldman in 1993 and covered major clients in both investment banking and investment management. He made partner in 2000 and worked with then co-presidents John Thain and John Thornton on broader strategy for Goldman as a whole.

For the past eight years, Donovan has also served as a professor of corporate strategy at the University of Virginia law school, where he became a student favorite, according to the school’s former dean, Paul Mahoney.

“He has just been an enormous hit with the students here. He’s received near perfect evaluations for both courses he’s taught every time he’s taught them,” Mahoney said. “The students rave about both the depth of his knowledge and the fact that he’s also taken the time to get to know them and urge them to develop their own ideas in classroom discussion.”

Thornton, the former Goldman co-president, said Donovan would bring a sharp focus on detail and execution to the Treasury department.

"He's in the top 1 percent of all the most able people with whom I have worked.” he said. “He’s a fundamental thinker at a strategic level and can operate at the granular level of ‘how do I get this done?’ To me, he’s a superb choice and will be extremely valuable to Mnuchin. Things will get done.”

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Goldman praised the selection of Donovan. “Jim is smart, extraordinarily versatile, and as hard-working as they come,” said Jake Siewert, a spokesman for the bank. “He'll be an invaluable addition to the economic team."

Donovan, like Mnuchin and Cohn, is viewed around Wall Street as less inclined toward some of Trump’s more protectionist trade policies. That could lead to some tension with Bannon and other senior White House advisers.

But Thornton suggested Donovan, who has degrees from MIT and Harvard, would not let policy disputes distract him. “He’s a low-ego guy and a world-class builder of enduring relationships,” he said. “And he’s not an ideologue."

The nomination will also come as something of a relief to Wall Street and corporate executives who worry about the economic nationalism of some of Trump’s other advisers.

“Solid showing by Mnuchin, who adds another experienced hand to his team,” said a senior Wall Street executive who knows Donovan. “And he gets props for standing up to political pressure from some corners of the White House to drop Donovan. While not closely aligned with Cohn at Goldman, he'll fit easily in with the smart, pragmatic team at Treasury and shares a lot of Gary's instincts on policy.”