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Private equity billionaire Marc Rowan has emerged as a top contender to be Donald Trump’s Treasury secretary and will meet the president-elect on Wednesday to make his pitch for the job, according to several people familiar with the matter.

The Apollo Global Management chief had prepared extensively for the interview, said two people familiar with the matter. He has flown back from Hong Kong to meet Trump in Florida.

Rowan has the support of several Trump confidants and Wall Street donors, who cited his deep experience in financial markets. “Marc is brilliant, though, very independent,” said one of his Wall Street backers.

The 62-year-old private capital boss faces stiff competition for the role, however, with hedge fund investor Scott Bessent still a leading contender. Kevin Warsh, a former Federal Reserve governor advising the transition team on policy, has also been floated for a position and remains a candidate to be the next Treasury secretary.

Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty is also in the mix and on Tuesday travelled with Trump to a SpaceX rocket launch in Texas hosted by Elon Musk.

The prediction site Polymarket had Warsh as outright favourite on Tuesday, with Bessent second favourite followed by Rowan and Hagerty.

Rowan’s candidacy was boosted after Trump tapped billionaire investor Howard Lutnick to lead the commerce department earlier on Tuesday, which would put the boss of investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald in charge of imposing far-reaching tariffs on imports.

The co-chair of Trump’s transition team lost traction in the race for the Treasury post after he and his allies became enmeshed in a bitter battle with Bessent’s camp over the job.

Bessent is also in contention to become chair of the new administration’s National Economic Council if his bid to be Treasury secretary falls through.

Rowan’s emergence as a main contender for the top economic post in the new administration comes after days of speculation about Trump’s plans. Treasury secretary is the last big cabinet position left to fill, after the president-elect raced through a number of nominations after winning the election earlier this month.

During Trump’s first administration, Rowan played a role in recommending to the president’s administration some emergency measures to tame financial markets in the early stages of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Rowan’s Apollo holds more than $700bn of assets under management. Any move into government would be complex for the Wall Street executive and the firm, although Apollo insiders say it has a deep bench of leadership to draw from. Apollo declined to comment.

Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary will need to be confirmed by the US Senate next year.

President-elect Donald Trump named his new secretary of education, tapping former Small Business Administration head and former wrestling executive Linda McMahon for the position.

The Education Department provides some funding for public schools, administers federal student aid programs and collects data on US education. Trump has vowed to close the department and redistribute most services to state-level education officials.

“We will send Education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort,” Trump said in a Tuesday statement.

McMahon served as administrator of the Small Business Administration under Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2019. In 2010, she ran as the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Connecticut but lost to current Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

She remained a close ally to the former president as chair of the board for the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank founded by Trump aides in 2021 to promote his GOP priorities. McMahon has also co-led Trump’s transition team alongside fellow billionaire Howard Lutnick, who Trump selected to lead the Commerce Department.

Before entering Trump’s political orbit, McMahon helped found Capitol Wrestling, now known as World Wrestling Entertainment, with her husband Vince McMahon. Both spouses were named in a lawsuit filed last month accusing WWE leaders of allowing “systemic and pervasive abuse” of underage children.

McMahon was one of multiple wresting world figures to make an appearance at this year’s Republican National Convention in support of Trump.

“President Trump is a job creator and the best friend American workers have had in the White House,” McMahon told the RNC crowd in Milwaukee.

She was initially considered a top contender to lead the Department of Commerce, coming off Trump’s decisive win this November. McMahon will need to be confirmed by the Senate.

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Bridgewater, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, is joining forces with State Street’s asset management arm to tap retail investors in the latest effort by money managers to look for new customers beyond their traditional strengths.

The partnership announced on Tuesday will get started with an exchange traded fund that will track one of Bridgewater’s best-known strategies. State Street Global Advisers has filed plans with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for an “All-Weather” ETF, which seeks to profit in all types of market conditions by holding a wide range of assets.

If approved by the regulator, it will be sub-managed by Bridgewater using its “risk parity” strategy, which uses leverage to weight assets by expected volatility. Once it starts trading, the ETF could offer other investors new insights into Bridgewater’s famously secretive methods.

The two groups also announced a larger partnership aimed at enlarging the potential market for complex products including hedge funds and private equity and credit.

It is part of a stampede by traditional asset managers such as State Street to strike such agreements with the big names in alternative assets. In the past six months, there have been tie-ups between Capital Group and KKR, BlackRock and Partners Group, and SSGA has a separate partnership with Apollo.

The alternatives managers hope to reach wealthy individual customers at a time when the institutional investors are holding firm or cutting back on their complex investments. The traditional managers want to stay relevant as retail customers and their advisers move into new sectors and like the higher fees these products can command.

“Bridgewater is known for its 40-year history of delivering resilient, diversified portfolios and insights to many sophisticated institutional global investors,” Anna Paglia, State Street Global Advisor’s chief business officer, said. “This strategic relationship will now bring that portfolio construction expertise to retail investors as well.”

State Street, which invented the ETF, is best known for its low-fee passive funds but the $4.7tn money manager is making a big push into racier products, with more than 80 launches since Paglia’s arrival earlier this year. They include ETFs focused on digital assets and one done in conjunction with Apollo to invest in public and private credit.

Bridgewater, which was founded by Ray Dalio, is attempting to rebuild after a difficult period that included a stormy succession process and poor returns accompanied by significant outflows. People familiar with its results said it had $100bn under management at the end of August, well below its all-time peak of $160bn. Its flagship Pure Alpha fund sustained large losses in 2022 and 2023.

The new ETF seeks to follow the strategy behind Bridgewater’s other well-known product, the All Weather hedge fund.

“At Bridgewater, we see global investors increasingly focused on portfolio resiliency and desiring durable client portfolios,” Karen Karniol-Tambour, Bridgewater’s co-chief investment officer, said. “We are excited to broaden access to our approach.”

Both companies declined to comment beyond their official statements, citing SEC rules that bar investment managers from discussing specific products before they have been approved.