FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Mr. Chairman, Senator Moynihan, Members of the Committee, I am honored to appear before you today as you consider my nomination to be Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Markets. I am pleased to have my family with me today: my wife Whitney and our twin daughters Julia and Kathryn, my parents, Jo Ann Werbel and Franklin Sachs and my grandmother Ida Sachs.

It is truly an honor to have been nominated by the President for this position. I am particularly grateful to Secretary Rubin and Deputy Secretary Summers for their strong support and for the confidence they have expressed in me by supporting my nomination. They have assembled a truly talented group of professionals at the Treasury Department and it is my earnest desire to be able to make a further contribution to their efforts.

Before arriving at Treasury a short time ago, I spent 13 years at the Investment Banking firm of Bear, Stearns & Co., including 7 as a Senior Managing Director and Head of Global Capital Markets. In that capacity, I gained broad experience in many areas of the financial markets, including trading, underwriting, research and investment banking. In particular, one of my areas of focus was advising some of the world largest corporate borrowers as to the most efficient manner in which to finance their operations in the increasingly complex global capital markets.

For the past ten months, it has been my privilege to serve at the Treasury Department as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Government Finance Policy. During this time, Treasury has been deeply involved in a variety of issues that are vital to our national economic well-being and to the global financial system. If confirmed as Assistant Secretary, I would welcome the opportunity to continue to apply my 13 years of financial market experience to help address the wide array of issues facing the Treasury Department. In particular, I would be committed to promoting the competitiveness and efficiency of our financial markets and to ensuring that we continue to successfully meet the new debt management challenges associated with an age of surplus.

It is an honor to appear before this Committee today and, if confirmed, I look forward to working closely with this Committee and the rest of the Congress. Thank you Mr. Chairman. I would be pleased to answer any questions that you or other members may have.