Ron Bloom - who has strong ties to private banking and labor
Is currently employed by the Pittsburgh-based United Steelworkers union, which has 1.2 million working and retired members. Bloom has worked as a special assistant to the USW president since 1996 and his duties include helping the union affect corporate business restructuring, investments, bankruptcies and mergers. He is particularly known for working on deals related to recent steel industry bankruptcies.
Before taking a position with the steelworkers union, worked as an investment banker for 10 years, including as a vice president for Lazard Freres & Co. As a banker, he often worked on investment deals related to unions.
In January 1990, Bloom and another Lazard banker quit the company to start their own boutique firm.
• Bloom is a 53 year-old New York native, has a bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, he came from a proud union family that includes an aunt who was a leader in the teachers' union.
After graduating from Wesleyan, he worked for the Jewish Labor Committee and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). He reportedly decided to go to business school so he could help unions navigate the business world.
As a banker, played a major role in deals between airlines and unions in the early 1990s
Quote:
"Let me give you some advice. First, we are big believers in dentist chair bargaining. For those of you not familiar with this approach, it is inspired by the story of the man who walks into his dentist's office, grabs the dentist by the balls and says, 'now, let's not hurt each other.' We do have a lot to lose and we and everybody else knows it. But what you need to understand is that we are willing to lose it."
"Hi, it's Ron, you know the drill."
— greeting on Bloom's office phone and cellphone, according to the Wall Street Journal, Feb. 19, 2009