[Photo: by Peter Reitzfeld for the WSJournal]

Steve Feinberg, co-founder and CEO of Cerberus Capital Management, is in discussions with the White House about taking a senior role in the Trump administration. The PE firm notified investors Thursday that Mr. Feinberg has expressed a willingness to join President Donald Trump’s administration and that any appointment would require “voluminous information and disclosures” to the government ethics office.

The memo doesn’t state what role Mr. Feinberg is considering. The billionaire helped raise funds for Mr. Trump’s campaign and already serves on Mr. Trump’s economic advisory council.

An appointment would require Mr. Feinberg, who has built Cerberus over 25 years into a PE giant with more than $30 billion in assets, to comply with conflict of interest rules. 

“If events develop to where Steve is proceeding with an opportunity, we have a succession plan in place,” according to the memo. “This succession plan would result in minimal changes to the current management and operation of the Firm.”

Mr. Feinberg, 56 years old, started his career …..  selling securities at Drexel Burnham Lambert. In 1992, he and William Richter started Cerberus, named for the three-headed dog that guards the gates of hell in Greek mythology, in 1992. They recruited former Vice President Dan Quayle and former Treasury Secretary John Snow, plus several prominent former chief executives to the firm.

Mr. Feinberg hasn’t been an active participant in politics and rarely speaks publicly. He knows one of Mr. Trump’s sons through their shared fondness for hunting and signed on to help with campaign because he believed Mr. Trump’s plans would reverse low capital spending by corporations and spur companies. He believes extensive deregulation and corporate tax overhaul will lead to more profitable companies that will, in turn, increase pay and hire more workers in the U.S.