Ivanka Trump ’ ' s careful balancing act of serving as her dad's surrogate, on whom concerned women can pin their hopes, has run into some turbulence. | Getty Presidential transition Ivanka Trump turns to Goldman Sachs partner for advice The incoming first daughter has been leaning on Dina Powell, a Goldman partner, as she fine-tunes her powerful new role.

Goldman Sachs’ influence on Donald Trump’s incoming administration now extends to the future first daughter.

As Ivanka Trump seeks to define the unique and powerful role she is expected to play in her father’s orbit, she has been leaning over the past month on Goldman Sachs partner Dina Powell, president of the Goldman Sachs Foundation, as a top adviser on policy and staffing, sources close to both women told POLITICO.


At Goldman Sachs, Powell, 42, is viewed as a leading voice on women’s empowerment in the workplace, overseeing “10,000 Women,” one of the investment bank’s biggest charitable initiatives, which focuses on helping female entrepreneurs around the world.

Powell, an Egyptian-born, Dallas-raised, fluent Arabic speaker, also served as chief of the personnel office in the White House under President George W. Bush, and as an assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs in the Bush administration.

Powell, multiple sources said, has become an invaluable resource to Ivanka Trump, who wants to position herself as a national leader on women’s economic empowerment, an issue that allows her to serve as a potential bridge to some liberals and moderates troubled by her father’s election as president.

In Powell, she has also found an adviser who knows her way around the White House, and who knows about staffing, which Ivanka Trump will also need help with if she fills the expected role of functional first lady.

And over the past few weeks, the sources said, Powell has been discussed as a top candidate to advise Ivanka Trump in a more official way — potentially as some sort of senior counselor or a yet-to-be-named position that would be more senior than a chief of staff — after Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, the same sources said.

Internally at Goldman Sachs, however, Powell has told colleagues she has made no final decision about leaving the firm to go full-time Trump, and sought to downplay her involvement.

But even in her more informal, advisory role to Ivanka Trump, Powell is joining a growing list of Goldman bankers and alumni tapped by the Trumps for prominent roles in the transition and incoming administration.

Trump, who campaigned on a message of overturning the political and financial systems that have hurt working-class Americans, has chosen former Goldman Sachs partner Steven Mnuchin to serve as Treasury secretary and Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn as top economic adviser to the White House. Former Goldman Sachs banker Anthony Scaramucci sits on the transition team. Trump’s senior counselor and former campaign CEO, Steve Bannon, is also a former Goldman banker. And Trump’s pick to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, Jay Clayton, is a lawyer with ties to Goldman Sachs.

A spokesman for Ivanka Trump did not return a call for comment on Powell’s role. A spokesman for Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

In a formal or an informal capacity, Powell is viewed as a critical voice in Ivanka Trump’s growing orbit, as she continues to serve as a loyal surrogate to her father while forging ahead as an advocate on women’s issues that could put her at odds with her father’s administration.

“If Ivanka’s talking to Dina Powell, there are few people out there who are better to talk to,” said Tony Fratto, a former Bush administration official who worked with her in the White House. “She has big ideas, and she’s really terrific at executing them. She did a lot of the Middle East women's empowerment work, which was critical at that time. Those issues are very meaningful to her, and there are certain things you don’t learn unless you’ve been on the inside doing it. Drawing on expertise like that is a smart move.”

So far, Ivanka Trump’s careful balancing act of serving as her dad's surrogate, on whom concerned women can pin their hopes, has run into some turbulence. After she expressed interest in speaking out on climate change and sat down for a meeting in Trump Tower with former Vice President Al Gore, for instance, Trump named Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a climate change denier, to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

That nomination raised questions about how much influence Ivanka Trump, often described as a moderating influence on her father, will really be able to exert over her father’s administration.

But for now, she’s forging ahead as the empowered, progressive, feminist Trump, with Powell as a major new resource. And in Powell, she has found a guide who is skilled at maintaining relationships on both sides of the aisle, as Ivanka Trump aims to do.

Powell has close relationships with top officials in the Obama White House, like Valerie Jarrett. Hillary Clinton has name-checked her from the stage in a speech. And she also serves on an advisory council of the George W. Bush presidential center.

It was not clear how Powell and Ivanka Trump first connected, but Powell’s partner, hedge fund manager David McCormick, is the front-runner to serve as deputy defense secretary in the Trump administration, Bloomberg News reported. McCormick, president of Bridgewater Associates, was also reportedly on the short list for Treasury secretary, a post that ultimately went to Mnuchin.