Same here. Perry makes “conservative” noises but his actions show he’s a globalist.
I think it's more than he's more in it for his friends than any kind of global agenda. The latest mess he's in, courtesy of documents released by the Republican Attorney General (who has taken the side of the taxpayers) involves him
helping a donor get millions in taxpayer money for some kind of hokey company. This is par for the course when it comes to Rick Perry.
UPDATE 11:40 a.m.: Two of Convergen Lifesciences three directors, who were listed on the company’s application for a $4.5 million state grant, say they have never served on the board.
Sha’Chelle Manning said she was invited to join the company’s board but she never participated because of other business and family obligations. Likewise, Thomas Kowalski said he would have become a director at the first board meeting that he attended, “but I have not been to a board meeting, and I’m not a director.”
“I really don’t know anything that’s going on with the company because I haven’t participated,” he said.
That would leave only David Nance, a company founder, as a director, according to the 2009 grant application.
It’s unclear whether Nance has added other board members to the company
UPDATE 11 a.m.: The state, which gave Convergen Lifesciences half of the $4.5 million in August, paid the second half of the grant on Tuesday, the day before the company released its application and other documents.
Earlier:
The founders of Convergen Lifesciences Inc. had invested $1,000 of their own money when they asked the state of Texas to give them $4.5 million to help get a new lung cancer-fighting drug closer to market, according to documents the Austin American-Statesman obtained Wednesday.
Convergen’s co-founder, Austin businessman David Nance, a friend and political contributor to Gov. Rick Perry, sued the state in January to block the release of his company’s grant application to the Texas Emerging Technology Fund and other documents that Attorney General Greg Abbott deemed were public information.
Convergen’s application touts Nance as a business and biotechnological leader without mentioning the bankruptcy of Introgen Therapeutics Inc., where he was CEO. Introgen failed in 2008 after the Food and Drug Administration denied its application to market a cancer-fighting therapy.
Convergen won the ETF grant under unusual circumstances. A regional panel that reviews applications turned Nance down. Convergen then bypasded a special panel that reviews life-sciences applications, and Nance appealed for help to Alan Kirchhoff, who then oversaw the Emerging Technology Fund for Perry.
Nance appealed directly to a 17-member statewide advisory committee which makes final recommendations on grants to Perry, the lieutenant governor and House Speaker.
That board noted one reason for recommending the $4.5 million award: “Finally, the committee knows and respects Convergen’s founding management team, having successfully launched other biotechnology companies in the past.”
Indeed, two members of the board knew Nance well. Max Talbott, now a consultant, was part of Introgen’s executive team. Bob Pearson, who has had business dealings with Nance and briefly shared office space with him, recused himself from voting on Convergen’s application.
Perry approved the award last August, but did not publicly announce it until the very end of the year. He has not explained the delay.
After Nance left Introgen, Nance launched another venture, the Innovate Texas Foundation. Perry steered $2 million in federal money to that foundation, which was intended to create a Texas network for entrepreneurs and researchers.
Nance paid himself $125,000 a year at the foundation, but the state declined to continue funding it after two years when it did not live up to Nance’s early promises of scoring big economic development projects.
My favorite email in all of this
From: David Morrow
[mailto:david.morrow@governor.state.tx.us]
Sent: Friday, February 19, 2010 3:43 PM
to: David Nance
CC: 'Rodney Varner'; Alan Kirchhoff
Subject: TETF Due Dilligence Complete - Convergen LifeSciences, Inc.
David,
Due dilligence on the application submitted by Convergen Inc. to the Texas Emerging Technology Fund has now been completed by the Office of the Governor. The synopsis report has been forwarded to staff of the Lt. Governor and Speaker of the House for their Review.
Thank you for your application to TETF and for your help during this process.
Regards
David Morrow
Texas Emerging Technology Fund
Office of the Governor, Economic Development and Tourism
How much due diligence was involved when two of the three people listed as directors on the state application for Convergen LifeSciences never even served as directors?
Maybe I should start donating money to Perry and then put in for grants.
What is really interesting is that the two directors who were never actually directors when this company was asking for taxpayer money, well one of them was a consultant for the governor's office from 2005-2007, and the other served on a council for Governor Perry.