Posted on 04/11/2002 3:22:58 AM PDT by Liz
LOS ANGELES, April 10 — Former President Bill Clinton has been hired as a senior adviser at two investment funds that specialize in lower-income urban and rural communities.
The funds, the Yucaipa American Fund and the Yucaipa Corporate Initiatives Fund, were started in the last year by Ronald W. Burkle, a former grocery store magnate. Mr. Clinton is a friend of Mr. Burkle and often stays at his house.
Mr. Burkle got a start bagging groceries as a teenager and then made millions investing in grocery stores, culminating in the sale of Fred Meyer to Kroger for about $8 billion in 1999.
Mr. Clinton will act as something of an ambassador for the funds, which be invested primarily in manufacturing, distribution and retail companies, Mr. Burkle said. The former president's duties will include talking to chief executives and local political leaders, at conferences and at "mini-town halls" in communities where Yucaipa hopes to invest.
The former president's participation, Mr. Burkle said, "brings attention and focal point to the funds."
"It's a good thing for him," Mr. Burkle said. "He needs to do some business things."
Mr. Burkle would not disclose the financial arrangements he made with Mr. Clinton but conceded that pay would be based on the performance of the fund. "If the fund makes money, he makes money," Mr. Burkle said.
Mr. Clinton's staff confirmed the appointment in a statement issued this afternoon.
Mr. Burkle is among the nation's wealthiest business executives and is a frequent political donor. According to statistics compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, Mr. Burkle and the Yucaipa Companies he founded in 1986 have contributed more than $1 million to Democrat and Republican entities and candidates in the last four years.
This is not the first such move by a former president or a top member of the Clinton administration. Last November, former Vice President Al Gore became the vice chairman of Metropolitan West Financial, a financial services company that is based in Los Angeles and is run by former Drexel Burnham executives. Industry executives say Metropolitan West, which was little known at the time, gained from that move because it helped put the company on the map.
In 1998, former President George Bush was given stock when he made a speech in Tokyo on behalf of Global Crossing, the Beverly Hills telecommunications company that is now nearly bankrupt. Mr. Bush's shares in Global Crossing, which were given to him instead of an $80,000 speaking fee, were once estimated to be worth $14 million.
"There is nothing wrong with that," said Stephen Hess, a scholar of the presidency at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "But corporate work is tricky because it does come with strings attached."
It is particularly tricky for a president as young as Mr. Clinton, who still has decades left to pursue another career, Mr. Hess said. "Most of the presidents have been old when they retire," he said. "The pay and perks for presidents is recent in American history. The country has changed its attitudes in that way."
Since leaving office, Mr. Clinton has been crisscrossing the globe, making millions on the lecture circuit, while he writes his memoirs.
The two funds started by Yucaipa first got their start last year when the California Public Employees' Retirement System, one of the nation's largest and most influential pension plans, approved a $475 million initiative to invest in blighted urban and rural communities throughout the state. Then retirement system then picked 11 investment firms as partners with the hope it would spur development in areas ignored by venture capitalists.
Yucaipa was allotted $200 million by the retirement system and set up a fund. But Mr. Burkle liked the idea enough to start another fund, the American Fund, which has raised $560 million from state and union pensions.
Mr. Burkle conceded that one reason he is interested in these types of investing is because there are now so many private equity funds that it is hard differentiate one from the next. "For us there are too many people trying to do typical leveraged buyout funds right now," he said. "We think this gives us an edge."
But Samuel Hayes, a finance professor at the Harvard School of Business, said that moving into a new direction could also bring problems.
"I would remind you this has been tried before and it has not always worked out, Professor Hayes said. "They may be doing this to profit, but they are going to have to work for it. "
He sure has the background that inspires "confidence."
Scratch that. I mean Clinton has the background to be a confidence man (con man).
The title suggests ex-President Treason will help make decisions on where to invest the money. How does that square with the statement that he'll act as 'something' of an ambassador?
He can hire whatever chick that he want to perform special duties for him.
If it were up to me to choose for him, hands down my choice would be Helen Thomas. If she did not want the job, my second choice would be one of his fans - Rosie-O-Fatty.
If Rosie-O-Fatty did not want the job --- oh well you can get my drift.
Members Appointed by the President of the United States
Ronald W. Burkle
Who is this LA "friend" and what are his connections? If he's a big donor, to whom? How is this gig to Klintoon's advantage, etc.
Time for the freeper research squadrons to swing into action.
Leni
Somehow, I suspect the next "adviser" Mr. Burkle hires will be jesse jerkson.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES FOUR TO
THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF
THE JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
The President announced today his intention to appoint Ronald
Burkle, James Kimsey, Dorothy McAuliffe and Jay Stein to the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Mr. Ronald W. Burkle, of Los Angeles, California, is the Founder and Managing Partner of The Yucaipa Companies, a private investment firm based in Southern California. Mr. Burkle is also the majority shareholder of Golden State Foods, the largest supplier of food products to McDonald's and Cyrk, Inc., the largest provider of toys and promotions for McDonald's. Mr. Burkle is a Member of the Board and Chairman of the Executive Committee of The Kroger Company and a Member of the Board of Kaufman & Broad Home Corporation. In partnership with Mario Lemieux, he is the majority owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) America and as Co-Chairman of the Burkle Center for International Relations at UCLA. He founded the Burkle Scholarship Award with the Los Angeles Urban League and is a Trustee of the National Urban League
And for added fun:
Ms. Dorothy Swann McAuliffe, of McLean, Virginia, serves on the boards of several privately held companies in the real estate development area, including the Jefferson National Management Company, Jefferson National Title Insurance Company, and the Columbia Land and Development Corporation. Previously, she was associated with the law firms of Thompson & Mitchell and Heron Burchette Ruckerett & Rothwell. Ms. McAuliffe is also a Member of the Board of the Friends of the Georgetown University Child Development Center. She is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center.
Donors Who Gave $10,000 to Clinton Legal Defense Fund (WP article)
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