Leon’s ‘pal’ backing out

Latest Apollo board exit

I have a conflict because I am being vetted for a major intergovernmental position.

— Siddhartha Mukherjee

Anewly minted board member at Apollo Global Management said he’s stepping down over a conflict of interest — and he insists that it’s not the conflict of interest some have been guessing.

Earlier this month, the private-equity giant revealed in a little-noticed securities filing that Siddhartha Mukherjee — an oncologist and Pulitzer Prize winner who lately has become a COVID vaccine guru — “will not stand for reelection” after he completes a one-year stint as an independent director on Apollo’s board that began March 1.

“I have a conflict because I am being vetted for a major intergovernmental position,” Mukherjee told The Post, declining to elaborate further on the new gig.

The timing of his exit “depends on when the vetting process is completed,” but will likely be before his term expires next March, he said.

Mukherjee joins a recent exodus that has included, most notably, Apollo’s former Chairman and Chief Executive Leon Black, who announced his surprise departure on March 22 amid questions about his financial ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Black paid the late pedophile $158 million for tax- and estate-planning services after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution.

As reported by The Post in an exclusive April 25 story, Mukherjee’s appointment had sparked speculation that he was part of a plan by Black to keep influence over Apollo’s board even as he stepped down.

That’s because Mukherjee’s wife, the artist Sarah Sze, has lately been a beneficiary of Black, who was among the donors of a 2018 sculpture by Sze to the Storm King Art Center in New Windsor, NY. Black’s Phaidon Press published the first major study of Sze’s work in 2016. Black also was chair of the Museum of Modern Art when it hosted an art installation by Sze.

Mukherjee told The Post his wife’s affiliation with Black “has nothing to do with anything” when it comes to his decision to leave Apollo’s board.

Another source close to Apollo begged to differ, speculating that Sze “wasn’t down with that reputational heat.”

Reached on her phone Monday, Sze hung up after saying the connection was bad. She didn’t return subsequent text messages seeking comment.

An Apollo spokesperson declined to comment.