Ex-Hong Kong fund manager Philip Bilden withdraws from consideration as Trump’s navy secretary

Philip Bilden, a long-time Hong Kong private equity fund manager who was tapped by US President Donald Trump to be the next navy secretary, has pulled his name from consideration, the Pentagon said Sunday.

He becomes the second nominee to head a military service who has bowed out in recent weeks.

Defence Secretary Jim Mattis announced that Bilden, who had run the Hong Kong branch of the private equity firm Harbourvest Partners since 1996 before recently stepping down, withdrew his name in a decision “driven by privacy concerns and significant challenges he faced in separating himself from his business interests.”

“While I am disappointed, I understand and respect his decision, and know that he will continue to support our nation in other ways,” Mattis said in a statement.

The nomination of Bilden, a Republican donor, had garnered criticism given his lack of direct experience with Navy issues, although he served on the Naval Academy board and has also donated to the US Naval Institute.

In his own statement made public by the Pentagon, Bilden said he concluded that he would not be able to fulfil US ethics rules “without undue disruption and materially adverse divestment of my family’s private financial interests.”

The announcement comes just a week after the Pentagon issued a statement saying that Bilden, despite reports that he would pull out of the running for the job, was headed for a confirmation vote. In that February 19 statement, Mattis called the former intelligence officer in the Army Reserve “the right leader” for the high-profile Navy job. White House press secretary Sean Spicer also tweeted that the reports were “100 per cent not true.”