Becoming the hunter

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Elizabeth Mackay’s experience at the state Division of Consumer Affairs prepared her to serve as the lieutenant governor’s senior policy adviser for reviewing red tape and advocating for small businesses.

But it was hardly the only plus on her resume, which also includes a four-year stint as a prosecutor, both at the state and federal level, and 21 years on Wall Street that culminated in a leadership position with Bear Stearns that ended in 2001, when she went to Columbia University law school.

And her well-rounded background is generating praise from the business leaders with whom she’s working as part of Kim Guadagno’s effort to make the state more attractive for businesses.

“From what I’ve observed, she’s done a remarkably good job,” said Edward B. Deutsch, of McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP, in Morristown, who works with Mackay on the Red Tape Review Commission. “It’s terrific for the state of New Jersey to have someone with her background and credentials, both businesswise and academically.”

The red tape project has been the most prominent project Mackay has been part of, beginning with meetings Guadagno held before Gov. Chris Christie’s inauguration. With the administration somewhat limited in the size of business tax cuts it can pursue in light of the state’s deficit, the effort to reduce the bureaucratic burden has become paramount.
“What you’re seeing is the poor fiscal situation is helping to foster the red-tape (reduction) mentality,” Mackay said, representing a shift in the culture of state government.

While “I don’t think any of us would want to live in a state without any regulations,” Mackay said she’s seen the impact of overregulation while at Bear Stearns. As an analyst, portfolio manager and chief investment strategist for the now-defunct investment services firm, she dealt with a wide range of “macro issues,” such as the interest rate and political environment.

“Wall Street is a very regulated industry,” Mackay said, and since she left, “it’s certainly even more regulated.”
As an example, Mackay found when Wall Street analysts committed fraud early last decade, regulators imposed a series of tests that made it more difficult to be an analyst, but didn’t address the fraud.
“It didn’t seem like the solutions really addressed the problem,” she said.
Her work with the red tape team was born of an interest in bringing a private-sector eye to regulation, which she first pursued with Consumer Affairs.

“Having been the regulated is very helpful, to have that perspective,” she said. “And I also have a mentality of ‘just do it’,” which helps in cutting red tape.
Despite her success in the financial industry, “I really wasn’t comfortable with what was going on in the stock market” during the peak of the tech boom, she said, leading to her decision to attend law school and her career as a prosecutor. But her experience in investment lends credibility to her voice when she says New Jersey is an appropriate place in which to invest.
“The biggest folks who disparage New Jersey are New Jerseyans, because this state is so rich in assets,” she said. “If you want to set up a distribution network, where better than New Jersey?” Along with the state’s advantageous location, she said, New Jersey is dotted with higher education institutions, feeding an educated, technologically savvy population.

Mackay is an enthusiastic advocate of the state’s communities, especially her longtime home of Madison and her new residence of Asbury Park. She moved there a year and a half ago with her husband, Joseph Palaia, chief of investigations in Newark for the attorney general.

Another piece of Mackay’s well-rounded résumé may be helpful in advocating the state’s strengths for businesses. Like Guadagno, Mackay worked as a federal prosecutor before joining state government. As advocates, prosecutors must make their case as forcefully as possible, Mackay said.
“What is marketing, really, but advocacy?” she said.

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