Background
Selig grew up in New York and attended the Dalton School on the Upper East Side.
Selig grew up in New York and attended the Dalton School on the Upper East Side.
He graduated from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut with a Bachelor of Arts in 1984. He attended Harvard Business School, earning an Master of Business Administration in 1988.
In 1984, Selig joined First Boston Corporation, where he worked in the mergers and acquisitions department for the investment bankers Bruce Wasserstein and Joseph Perella. In 1988, he joined Wasserstein"s and Perella"s own firm, Wasserstein Perella & Company, which has been described as a training ground which helped create "a dynasty of bankers and executives that has spread throughout Wall Street and corporate America". In 1994, Selig joined Union Bank of Switzerland as head of its financial sponsor group and as co-head of mergers and acquisitions.
After 4 years he moved to Société Générale in 1998.
He worked for Bank of America from 1999 until 2014, where he rose to executive vice chairman of global corporate and investment banking. He has been "known for advising on consumer and retail deals".
Selig is a Democrat, but has not been a "big Democratic donor or operative". On November 6, 2013, President Barack Obama nominated Selig as Under Secretary for International Trade at the Department of Commerce to replace Frank Sanchez.
In February 2014 Salon.com wrote that Selig "received more than $9 million in bonus pay.. in addition to the $5.1 million in incentive pay awarded in 2013.
Orrin Hatch (R) reminded the committee that President Obama had characterized these types of investments as “betting against America" during his 2012 election campaign. Upon his confirmation on June 4, 2014, United States. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker mentioned that Selig"s core priorities will be the "Open for Business Agenda", the National Export Initiative and the expansion of SelectUSA, to attract more investment in the United States.
In May 2015, Selig rejected European Union concerns that the arbitration panel for investor-state dispute settlement as foreseen in the TPP would allow companies to bypass national courts, and called criticism that it undermined governments" right to regulate "misguided". Selig is married to Heidi Selig, employed at Extensis VIII Incorporated.