WATERTOWN – Matt Doheny has hired Harry Wilson to chair the Doheny for Congress finance team and lead a finance committee of 50 people.

Wilson, a former senior U.S. Treasury official and former Republican state comptroller candidate, is considered by some to be a top corporate restructuring expert.

“Harry Wilson is a premier financial expert, well respected in both business and politics, and has been tapped at various levels of government for his advice and professional counsel,” said Doheny. “His skills, qualifications and national reputation made him my top choice for the job.”

Doheny and Wilson both ran as Republican candidates during last year’s elections, and both serve together on the board of directors of YRC Worldwide, a Fortune 500 transportation company headquartered in Overland Park, Kan.

Said Wilson, “Matt will bring a business expertise to Congress that’s sorely needed – and I look forward to helping him get elected next November.”

Wilson will lead a 50-person finance committee, which will identify potential donors who support Doheny and his stances for a "pro-growth" government that supports free markets and opposes high taxes and spending and burdensome regulation.

Doheny has also hired Jason Feulner, Fayetteville, as his finance director.

Wilson, 40, is a Johnstown native who, in 2009, worked for the U.S. Treasury Department and led the restructuring of General Motors, arguably the largest successful turnaround in American corporate history. Wilson was also the Republican candidate for New York State Comptroller in 2010. In June of this year, Gina M. Raimondo, the Democratic treasurer of Rhode Island, appointed Wilson to serve on Rhode Island’s pension reform task force, which helped to redesign a troubled retirement system. And last month, Wilson was appointed by President Obama to the Advisory Committee of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the federal agency responsible for insuring the pension benefits of private sector employees. He is currently the chairman and CEO of The MAEVA Group, LLC, a turnaround and restructuring "boutique" based in Westchester County.

Candidate Doheny, 41, was raised in Alexandria Bay. He is a graduate of Allegheny College and received his law degree at Cornell University. After practicing law in Syracuse, he entered the business world. At Deutsche Bank, he managed more than 130 individuals while helping purchase large companies and restructure them. In 2008, Matt joined Fintech Advisory, a money management firm. He left Fintech in 2010 and started his own business, North Country Capital LLC, which is based in Watertown and primarily serves northern and Central New York. He recently taught a finance class at Clarkson University, and will soon teach a course in the same subject at Jefferson Community College.

Doheny was the Republican and Independence parties’ candidate in the 23rd Congressional District race in 2010. With just 1,990 votes separating Doheny from incumbent Democrat Bill Owens, the House race was one of the closest in the nation last year.