Veteran Wall Street economist David Zervos has been hired by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as a counsellor in the department.

Zervos, who has been a longtime chief market strategist for investment banking giant Jeffries, will now serve in a board advisory capacity, as per CNBC, which also reported that he is expected to start in his new position immediately.

After a number of staff departures from the treasury department, Zervos is expected to bring his experiences and intellectual power to the US Treasury. Zervos joins the department at a time when among the 16 Senate-confirmed appointees, seven chose to vacate their positions by mid-August. Bessent himself is on his third chief of staff since he became Treasury Secretary in January 2025.

Who is David Zervos?

Zervos has been working with Jeffries since 2010.

He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Rochester and was appointed twice by the US Federal Reserve. The first time was at the beginning of hic career in the 1990s when he was appointed for interest-rate research and technical economics, CNN reported.

Zervos then quit his job at the Fed to work in the public sector and returned in 2009 in the wake of the financial crisis to work as a visiting advisor in the Division of Monetary Affairs at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington.

Before he rejoined the Fed, Zervos held a number of sales and trading as well as research positions in the private sector. He was the manager of global macro portfolios Brevan Howard and UBS O’Connor.

For Jeffries, in his role as the company's chief marketing strategist, Zervos met clients in the fixed income, equity and investment banking sectors across the company's platform. He also engaged in media appearances and has attended as well as presented at various financial market conferences.

He also heads the Global Macro Division of Leucadia Asset Management LLC (“LAM”).

In this capacity, he provides written strategy of his view of global macroeconomics as well as financial trends, which are then shared by LAM Global Macro Division with Jeffries' clients as well as to fee-based subscribers.

Notably, Donald Trump had also considered Zervos to run the US Federal Reserve, but the US President ended up choosing Kevin Warsh for the job.

Zervos called himself a “Wall Street geek” in an interview with CNBC in which he also voiced his excitement regarding his third stint as an employee for the US government.

He has also praised Bessent, saying that the 64-year-old “has done an incredible job in this administration at guiding the economy through a lot of tumultuous periods.”

“Whether it’s trade, whether it’s war, he’s stepped up,” Zervos added.