Cheerio! What to do if you're a 54-year-old former world leader, in good health, with Western sympathies? Days of leading a major country are behind you, but you're not ready to pack it in anytime soon. Link up with a major American corporation, of course! Tony Blair, who served as Great Britain's prime minister from 1997 through June of last year, has agreed to join with JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) in the role of part-time adviser. The financial terms of the arrangement weren't disclosed, but one Manhattan recruitment consultant estimated in The Financial Times that Blair's fee would likely be more than $1 million a year (though that sum doesn't go quite as far in pounds these days).
With this new career step into the financial-services world, Blair follows in the footstep of his predecessor, John Major, (incidentally, a spitting image of my grandfather). The former prime minister works for private-equity firm The Carlyle Group, which also employed former U.S. President George H. W. Bush.
In late trading today, JPM shares have gained nearly 4%.
Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.










