Bob White, a Troubleshooter Plotting Romney's Trajectory Stephen Crowley/The New York Times NYTCREDIT: Stephen Crowley/The New York Times Bob White with Mitt Romney, center. Mr. White, whom Mr. Romney hired at Bain Consulting in 1981, jokes that his job is "Friend of Candidate." BOSTON - When Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital first came under assault, his beleaguered campaign staff turned to Bob White, an informal adviser. He quickly recruited researchers to conduct a deal-by-deal autopsy, searching for uplifting examples to share with voters to counter rivals" accounts of exploitative ones. When Mr. Romney's team of longtime aides risked becoming insular, Mr. White navigated a minefield of office politics to ensure that Ed Gillespie, a veteran Republican operative brought in from the outside, had a major hand in strategy decisions. And when Mr. Romney was portrayed as a robotic Mr. Fix-It, unwilling to tell his personal story, Mr. White pushed to recast him as a compassionate church leader, selfless neighbor and adoring father. Mr. White, a former college hockey player with a pronounced Boston accent, has emerged as a singular force within the Romney campaign. A designated troubleshooter and in-house consultant, he helped steady a wobbly candidacy and reverse its trajectory in recent weeks, according to interviews with a dozen Romney aides and advisers. Little seen and little known to the public, Mr. White - a multimillionaire businessman who has the nebulous title of campaign chairman and accepts no salary - plays an outsize role. Variously described by aides as the candidate's alter ego, his aide-de-camp, his genial enforcer and his gut check, Mr. White gained his stature entirely through his long relationship with Mr. Romney, who hired him 31 years ago for a management consulting job. His place in a Romney White House, should there be one, is all but guaranteed. "Bob's voice in Romneyworld carries enormous weight, both internally and externally," said Spencer Zwick, the campaign's finance chief. People crave his approval and his sign-off. They know Mitt listens to him. Mr. White, 56, jokes that his job is "Friend of Candidate." Mr. Romney calls him "my wingman." Their partnership is devoted and durable, with Mr. Romney relying on Mr. White as an informal adviser at every stage of his career: Bain, the Massachusetts governorship, the Olympics and both presidential campaigns. Aides say it falls to him to channel what he sees as the real Mitt Romney. "That's not Mitt," Mr. White is known to say at strategy meetings about a proposal, at times directly asking Mr. Romney, "Are you really comfortable with this plan?" Inside a campaign that long favored hammering on President Obama and playing down the details of Mr. Romney's biography, Mr. White has pushed for transparency, arguing that the benefits outweighed the risks. He advocated that Mr. Romney discuss his Mormon faith, publicly embrace his financial success and release his recent income taxes, taking to a whiteboard to tutor a campaign media relations team befuddled by the candidate's far-flung investments and trusts. Aides, who say nothing in the campaign is achieved without exhaustive consensus, said Mr. Romney's emergence in the final stretch of the race as a pragmatist, talking about his charitable acts, business career and record as governor, bore Mr. White's fingerprints. He "wants people to see the Mitt Romney he knows," said Ron Kaufman, a top campaign adviser. He wants to give people a reason to go to the polls. Neither Mr. White nor Mr. Romney would talk about their relationship for this article. But by granting Mr. White access to every meeting and any aide, Mr. Romney has revealed something about his own leadership style, suggesting the limits of his faith in political operatives and his enduring belief in the problem-solving powers of fellow management consultants. In Mr. White, Mitt Romney has, in a sense, found his very own Mitt Romney. At Romney for President headquarters here, Mr. White peppers advisers with provocative questions, tests their assumptions and challenges their plans, just as he and Mr. Romney did at Bain Consulting. "Why are we running this ad now?" he has asked. Is this the best use of money?