Talent grab.

• Position: Off The News

For years, high-level U.S. Treasury officials have come and gone, yet one mainstay, an individual deemed indispensible to the running of the department, has stayed on to guide new Treasury Secretaries through Washington's bureaucratic jungle. That individual is Annabella Mejia, whose title has changed from time to time but whose role is essentially executive secretary to the Secretary of the Treasury. Put another way, in every institution there is one individual who knows where the bodies are buried. At Treasury, that person was Ms. Mejia.

That is why Washington insiders were surprised when incoming Treasury Secretary John Snow brought in his own personal staff in lieu of...