DINA POWELL, the former deputy national security adviser who is in the running to replace Nikki Haley at the United Nations, is seen as an influential voice on the Middle East and adept at forging powerful relationships. U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he would consider selecting the Goldman Sachs executive as the next ambassador to the United Nations, hours after announcing Haley would step down at the end of the year. The U.S. president said Haley would help him make the final pick for her replacement before revealing later that there were five people on his short list for the job. “Dina would love it,” Trump said later on board Air Force One. A friend of Haley, Powell served in the first year of the Trump administration as the deputy national security adviser for strategy, and was a key player in diplomatic efforts in the Middle East. Like Haley, the 45-year-old left the White House on good terms, in contrast to some of the senior officials who have been fired or resigned amid controversy. After leaving the White House in January, Powell then joined Goldman Sachs’ management committee, where she had worked for more than a decade as a partner and the firm’s global head of impact investing. Swift political rise Born in Egypt, she immigrated to Texas with her family when she was 4 years old and speaks Arabic. Her parents “worked seven days a week for all of my childhood that I remember, and they actually believed in the American dream,” she told Huffington Post in 2013. Powell’s father worked as a bus driver and both parents ran a convenience store while their daughter attended a private all-girls school. “For them, that meant becoming entrepreneurs, making enough money to support their family, and seeking their dream of seeing their girls reach their full potential.” She has long been drawn to politics and grew up in a household that supported Ronald Reagan. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, her first internship was with then-Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican. At the age of 29, Powell became the youngest-ever assistant to the president for presidential personnel, overseeing all of the decisions on appointments in George W. Bush’s White House. In 2005, as the administration attempted to improve relations with the Middle East, Bush sent Powell into the State Department, where she was assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs and deputy undersecretary of public affairs and public diplomacy. During her stint there, she was a key voice for the Bush administration in the Middle East. Move to Goldman Leaving the public sector, Powell joined Goldman in 2007 and rose to the highest rank of partner within three years. During her time there, she ran the bank’s charitable activities and helped small businesses. One of the charitable initiatives she oversaw was 10,000 Women, which focused on helping female entrepreneurs. “If we really want, in this recession, to help create more jobs around the world and insure economic stability, women are a very smart investment,” she told Charlie Rose in 2011. Powell earned in the region of US$2 million a year at Goldman Sachs, the New York Times reported in 2013. Whether she would want to leave the lucrative private sector again remains to be seen. Goldman would be reluctant to see her leave, with Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive officer, reportedly valuing her talent at forging and maintaining powerful relationships. Many at Goldman Sachs, especially women, look up to her as a role model, it was said. Those attributes were echoed by Karen Hughes, who worked with Powell in the State Department. “She has a real gift for both seeing the big picture and putting in place the details. She has a real gift for partnerships, it’s one of the things that makes her so effective,” Hughes told CNN. Trusted by Trump While working in Trump’s administration, she was criticized at times by the nationalist faction in his base of support, including then-chief strategist Steve Bannon. A fellow Goldman alumni, Bannon left the White House last year to return briefly to the right-wing Breitbart website. She was closer with Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, who’s leading efforts to broker a deal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When her departure was announced, Kushner, who is preparing a long-awaited Middle East peace plan, said Powell would “continue to play a key role in our peace efforts.” And with her experience working on women’s economic empowerment, Ivanka Trump sought Powell’s help regarding her White House agenda and how she could help women in business. Powell was one of the first daughter’s closest advisers — The New York Times described her as Ivanka’s “all-around guide in the administration.” H.R. McMaster, the then national security adviser, called Powell at the time “one of the most talented and effective leaders with whom I have ever served.” She was unique among Trump’s advisers as a rare Bush administration veteran friendly with top Democrats, including some of former President Barack Obama’s senior aides. Powell advised Trump on his meetings with foreign leaders and planned his trips abroad, as well as his visit to the U.N. General Assembly last year. One senior White House official described Powell’s relationship with Trump as “really trusting.” “He talks to her all the time,” the official told the Washington Post at the time of her departure. “He trusts her judgment. She’s been spot-on with her views on foreign leaders and how to handle them and talk to them. It comes with her years of experience.” “Something to bear in mind regarding Haley replacement — when Dina Powell left the White House, Trump almost immediately started asking aides whether he should rehire her for something else,” said Maggie Haberman, a U.S. journalist. Possible resistance While Powell remains a top choice for Trump, she could face some opposition internally. She is disliked by White House chief of staff John F. Kelly, who privately criticized her performance in the administration and deemed her a sharp-elbowed operator who did not follow his protocols, according to three West Wing officials. Powell also has differed with national security adviser John Bolton on some policy issues and has a less hawkish worldview. With Trump, personnel moves are often fickle and based on impulse. While White House officials described Powell broadly as a leading candidate, that “could change on a dime,” said a senior official. Powell was seen by many moderate Republicans as a positive influence in the administration with a president who is often mercurial on foreign policy and prefers an isolationist approach — with less foreign aid and fewer foreign troops. She had close ties with Hill Republicans and a number of key officials and is personal friends with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, officials said. She was instrumental in the administration’s national security strategy, a document that received positive reviews from many Republicans. Critics say the document is more aspirational for what aides wish Trump would embrace. Some Trump allies who do not like Powell — because they consider her a “globalist” who doesn’t support the populist agenda the president campaigned on — are preparing opposition material against her to try to convince Trump to select someone else. A headline on Breitbart on Wednesday portrayed her previous work at Goldman Sachs as a public relations effort to burnish the bank’s reputation following the financial crisis that cratered the economy. “Dina Powell’s Global Foundation Helped Polish Goldman Sachs’ Shattered Image,” the headline read. Some critics note that Powell is currently working with foreign governments on investment opportunities that may not align with the interests of the United States.(SD-Agencies) | 