President-elect Donald Trump turned to some of Wall Street’s biggest names to create a panel of business leaders that will give him strategic advice on the economy after he takes office, including two financiers with deep Democratic roots.

Blackstone Group LP Chief Executive Officer Steve Schwarzman will chair the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum, which will begin meeting with Trump in February, according to a statement Friday from his private equity firm. JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon and BlackRock Inc. CEO Laurence Fink, major donors to Democratic politicians, will also sit on the panel.

“This forum brings together CEOs and business leaders who know what it takes to create jobs and drive economic growth,” Trump said in a statement issued by Blackstone. “My administration is committed to drawing on private sector expertise and cutting the government red tape that is holding back our businesses from hiring, innovating, and expanding right here in America.”

Presidents traditionally turn to business leaders for advice on the economy. President Barack Obama named CEOs from companies including Xerox Corp. and Dow Chemical Co. to an advisory committee on international trade, while Schwarzman has partnered with the current administration on efforts to hire veterans.

Trump asked him to pick the group’s members, Schwarzman said Friday in a Bloomberg Television interview, recounting his discussions with the president-elect and adding that the executives are hopeful their advice will benefit the country.

“He said, ‘It’s really for me to learn what people have to say in an unconstrained way: they don’t report to me, they’re independent, and I want to know what they know,’” said Schwarzman, 69, a billionaire who has historically backed the Republican Party’s presidential nominee but didn’t publicly voice support for Trump during the campaign. “It was nice to see people put aside narrow interests.”

David Fuller's view

This is a good move.  It shows that Trump is sufficiently secure to want advice from very successful business people, whether they supported him during the election or not.  Partisan politics are no longer relevant now that he is President-elect.  He wants to be a successful President.