Teneo & The Clinton Machine (Re-post of Old Article)

Then there is Teneo Holdings, a global consulting firm with deep Clinton connections. Teneo serves as a kind of private-enterprise satellite to Clinton Inc. Doug Band, Mr. Clinton’s right-hand man for many years, is a Teneo founder. Huma Abedin, Mrs. Clinton’s right-hand woman for many years, was a senior advisor to Teneo at the same time she held a top position as part of Mrs. Clinton’s inner circle at the State Department. Bill Clinton was both a paid adviser to Teneo and a client. Secretary of State Clinton’s former Economic Envoy to Northern Ireland, Declan Kelly, is a Teneo co-founder and CEO.

Teneo boasts of a vast reach across international arenas, partnering “exclusively with the CEOs and senior leaders of many of the world’s largest and most complex companies and organizations.” In a Clintonian claim of cosmic proportions, Teneo says the firm addresses a “range of financial, reputational and transformational challenges and opportunities by combining the disciplines of strategic communications, investor relations, investment banking, financial analytics, executive recruiting, digital analytics, corporate governance, government affairs, business intelligence, management consulting and corporate restructuring on an integrated basis.”

Got that? In fact, Teneo is rather shadowy, with only a few known corporate clients. It is best known for its relation with the Clintons and the Clinton Foundation. Journalists so far have seemed unwilling or unable to penetrate much further into Teneo. But that appears to have changed with Mrs. Clinton’s formal entry into the presidential race and the dawning realization among media types that the Clinton Foundation, Teneo and the disappearing State Dept. emails really do signal that some sort of gigantic sleazy game is afoot.

Per the article:

The official line from Teneo is that it was founded in 2011. But Brynaert reports that Teneo appears to have been registered as a business as early as 2009. “According to the New York State Corporation & Business Entity Database,” Brynaert writes, “Teneo Strategy Consulting LLC was registered on November 18, 2009, which was two months after Declan Kelly was appointed to the No. Ireland envoy post.” Brynaert notes as well that the website www.TeneoStrategyConsulting.com was registered on November 20, 2009, and began redirecting to www.TeneoHoldings.com on September 30, 2011.

Teneo is filled with former associates of the Clintons. At one time, the Teneo roster included Justin Cooper, a former Clinton aide who has been linked to registration documents for the private email server at the center of Mrs. Clinton’s State Department emails controversy. “Cooper’s bio was scrubbed from Teneo’s website,” Brynaert reports, “but a cache link reveals it once noted, ‘In addition to his role with Teneo, Mr. Cooper serves as Senior Advisor to President William J. Clinton. Mr. Cooper advises President Clinton on a broad range of issues, including finances, business matters, public affairs and politics. Additionally, Mr. Cooper advises and assists in operating the Clinton Foundation, Clinton Global Initiative and the Clinton Family Foundation.’” Five State Department officials from the Economic Envoy’s office also followed Kelly to Teneo, Brynaert reports: Stephen Meahl, Therese O’Higgins, Monica Milton, Steven Sullivan and Jacqueline Wilson.

In another post, Brynaert turns up new details on Mrs. Clinton’s longtime aide, Huma Abedin. Brynaert closely examines Teneo’s role in a December 7, 2012, event in Belfast, Northern Ireland, honoring Secretary of State Clinton. The trip appears to be one of those peculiarly Clintonian mixtures of self-aggrandizement, shmooze and money. Abedin was along for the ride. By then, Brynaert notes, Abedin was serving in dual capacities as a State Department employee and an adviser to Teneo, roles that later attracted considerable controversy.

Brynaert pushes hard on the Abedin affair. He digs up an 2012 Teneo brochure featuring her as a “Senior Adviser,”

Mrs. Clinton flew to Ireland to be honored by the Worldwide Ireland Funds, which describes itself as an “international philanthropic network” that has raised over $430 million for worthy causes around the world. It’s mission is to be “the largest network of friends of Ireland,” according to press release issued for the Clinton event. Teneo played a role in coordinating the Belfast event and Kelly met Secretary Clinton at the airport. Brynaert has the video. [Editor’s Note: Brynaert updates and corrects here.] In promotional material for the event, a Teneo employee, Brendan Murphy, is listed as a contact person.

At the time of the December 2012 event, Kelly was long gone from the State Department. But Abedin was not. It is an archetypal Clinton moment. Abedin is being paid by both the State Department and Teneo Holdings. Money and politics are flowing freely. Who is Huma Abedin representing? Teneo? The Government of the United States in the person of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Or the soon-to-be presidential candidate in the person of Hillary Clinton?

Douglas J. Band

President, Teneo Holdings

Douglas J. Band is a co-founder and President of Teneo.

Mr. Band began working in the White House in 1995, serving in the White House Counsel’s office for four years and later in the Oval Office as the President’s Aide. In 1999, he was appointed by President Clinton as a Special Assistant to the President before he was made one of the youngest Deputy Assistants ever to serve a President.

Mr. Band served as President Clinton’s chief advisor from 2002 until 2012, advising him as the Counselor to the President, and was the key architect of Clinton’s post-Presidency. He created and built the Clinton Global Initiative, which to date, has raised $69 billion for 2,100 philanthropic initiatives around the world and impacted over 400 million people in 180 countries. On March 1, 2012, President Clinton said of Doug: “I couldn’t have achieved half of what I have in my post-presidency without Doug Band. Doug is my Counselor and a board member of the Clinton Global Initiative, which was created at his suggestion. He tirelessly works to support the expansion of CGI’s activities and my other foundation work around the world. In our first ten years, Doug’s strategic vision and fund-raising made it possible for the foundation to survive and thrive. I hope and believe he will continue to advise me and build CGI for another decade.”

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