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. "
The California Public Employees' Retirement System is teaming up with The Yucaipa Cos. to establish a first-of-its-kind merchant bank holding company: It will control subsidiary funds and businesses that provide financial services to public pension funds, Taft-Hartley pension funds, unions and union members.
(REMEMBER THE TEACHER'S RETIRMENT FUNDS IN ARKANSAS!!!!!!!!!!! The Clintons kind of "borrowed" from them!)
CalPERS is committing up to $560 million in the holding company, Yucaipa American Funds. The holding company will tap the assets of Taft-Hartley plans (union pension plans) as well as public pension funds, and invest them in buyouts and private equities. These investments will focus on industries and companies that maintain strong corporate governance practices and are sensitive to the interests of their employees, CalPERS says.
Investments will target Californias underserved markets
SACRAMENTO, CA -- Californias underserved urban and rural markets will be the recipient of $475 million in capital from the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS).
The CalPERS Board of Administration, serving as the pension funds Investment Committee, approved hiring 11 venture capital and private equity firms to invest in Californias urban and rural communities.
"There are unmet needs in Californias urban and rural markets and we believe this initiative represents a golden opportunity for CalPERS and the state," said William D. Crist, President of CalPERS Board of Administration. "Investments in underserved areas hold potential to deliver superior returns for our Fund and its members while fueling the growth of jobs, businesses, and stronger communities in our state."
July 1999
The donors to the Clinton library are only known at the moment to the librarys fund raisers and Congressional investigators. But a 1999 New York Times article reported that generous pledges had been made to the library by Hollywood moguls David Geffen and Steven Spielberg, as well as California supermarket entrepreneur Ronald W. Burkle. (All three men, however, refused to comment.) A 1999 Washington Post article reported that Burkle, Lew Wasserman, and Fox Family Worldwide chairman Haim Saban were each prepared to give between $5 and $10 million. Those prepared to donate $1 million to the library included developer Walter Shorenstein, Global Crossing chairman Gary Winnick, former Democratic National Committee finance chairman Alan Solomon, investors Alan Shuman and Tom Lee, aviation leasing executive Farhad Azima, and fashion-industry executive Arnold Simon.
With one son taken care of, Jackson turned to his younger sons, Jonathan and Yusef. Their destiny was to make money to support the family dynasty, while Junior was put in charge of the clan's political fortunes. Jackson asked old friend and financial supporter Ronald W. Burkle if he would scout opportunities for them. Burkle understood that by "opportunities" Jackson didn't mean a management job with the Dominick's or Food 4 Less supermarkets he owned. Nor was Jackson interested in getting his sons in the real-estate business, although Burkle sat on the board of developer Kaufman & Broad, whose cookie-cutter houses were being built in decent middle-class communities around the world. Jackson was looking for something big, something special, something his sons could call their own, something befitting black America's first family.
Ron Burkle and August Busch IV weren't done with their favors to Jesse and sons. In the year 2000, they bankrolled Yusef Jackson's Internet venture OneNetNow.com, a Website he claimed would "bring more minorities" to the Internet. Paying the bills was Burkle's investment firm, the Yucaipa Companies in Los Angeles. When the Internet bubble burst later that year, OneNetNow.com went bankrupt. Ron Burkle shrugged it off. "I'm a friend of the family," he told reporters. "Family" apparently included Jesse Jackson's mistress, Karin Stanford, hired by Yucaipa on a $10,000 per month retainer in January 2001, only days after her illicit relationship and love child with Jackson were exposed in the tabloids. Burkle was already in the know, but had kept his knowledge to himself. In December 1999, when Jackson's mistress was seeking a new home for herself and her baby, Burkle sent her to Kaufman and Broad Mortgage Company to get a loan. A quick call from board member Burkle convinced Kaufman and Broad to lend her $291,950 to buy a $365,000 house on Don Miguel Drive in Los Angeles.
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Brown's other trips. Traveling with the Commerce Secretary to South Africa were Donald Anderson, an adviser to the president of Time Warner, which donated $508,333 to the Democrats between 1992 and 1994, and Ronald Burkle, C.E.O. of the Yucaipa Group and a "managing trustee" of the D.N.C. The title designates him as having helped the party raise $200,000 or more.
With all of these party committees competing for large soft-money checks, wealthy donors have been deluged with requests. Ronald Burkle, the supermarket mogul who has made generous soft-money donations to the Democrats, was the co-chairman of the Los Angeles reception featuring the President. Mr. Clinton also received top billing at a fund-raiser held at Mr. Burkle's estate in March for Senator Barbara Boxer of California. In conjunction with that event, Mr. Burkle's Yucaipa Company gave $80,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Mr. Burkle, like several major Democratic California donors, employs an aide to help manage his political affairs. His lieutenant is Ari Swiller, a former Democratic National Committee fund-raiser.
Burkle, a Los Angeles-based billionaire who amassed his fortune through savvy deals in the grocery chain business, owns about a 7 percent stake in Kmart, which he "collared, a partner with Yucaipa Cos., Burkle's investment firm, said.
Burkle, a friend and big financial backer of former President Clinton who is known in Hollywood for holding star-studded political fund-raisers at his 40-room Beverly Hills mansion, was No. 124 in Forbes' ranking last year of the 400 richest Americans. He is worth an estimated $1.7 billion.
A former boxboy for Stater Bros. Markets, where his father was president, he later snapped up and merged a number of grocery chains, including ABC Markets, Alpha Beta, Smittys, Ralphs and Food 4 Less in the western United States.
By 1999, Burkle had masterminded Cincinnati-based Kroger Co.'s $13 billion takeover of Fred Meyer Inc., creating the largest U.S. supermarket chain. He acquired the Kmart stake last January with business partner Kenneth Abdalla.
Burkle is currently in the Middle East, according to his investment firm, and did not immediately return phone calls seeking an interview. But he told the Los Angeles Times earlier this month he bought his shares in Kmart on the company's plan to expand into new markets.
Burkle also said he believed it was unlikely Kmart would file for bankruptcy.
Yeah, but Bill's plastic inflatable woman won't mind......
Was this the week or the day before Kmart filed? LOL.
Someday he'll need a presidential pardon, and......well, you know the rest....
ROTFL..........you forgot to add (/sarcasm off).
Burkle is the closest thing to a Los Angeles Horatio Alger. He started as a supermarket box boy and ended up as America's leading supermarket boss, a rise fueled by junk bonds and daring. A millionaire by age 20 and a billionaire today, Burkle shies away from press, but speaks plainly in private, say friends and associates.
So far, most of Burkle's influence has been directed at Sacramento. Burkle supplied big money to Gray Davis' gubernatorial campaign and employed Davis' wife for a time. Burkle refers to the governor as "Gray," and no one doubts that Davis takes his calls, as in the debate over bringing a football team to Los Angeles, when Burkle's money gave Hollywood agent Mike Ovitz's longshot bid its greatest credibility.
Burkle also is plugged in locally. He and Riordan are social friends and political allies.
Michael Milken helped finance Burkle's supermarket acquisitions.
I hope you attributed the source......
Declared Holdings
Director
Yahoo Inc
Director
Occidental Petroleum Corp - 17,000 shares
Gary L. Wilson and Ronald W. Burkle Join Yahoo! Board of Directors
Sunnyvale, CA -- Nov. 14, 2001
Burkle, 48, is founder and managing partner of The Yucaipa Companies, widely known for its leadership in acquisitions, mergers and management of large retail and distribution companies. With Yucaipa, Burkle has led and completed major mergers such as Fred Meyer, Inc. and The Kroger Company, forming the largest supermarket company in the United States. Yucaipa is also the controlling shareholder of Alliance Entertainment Corporation, a distributor of music, videos, DVDs, electronic games and digital content into retail environments. Burkle is a member of the boards of KB Home Corporation and Occidental Petroleum Corporation. Some of his numerous other positions include: Co-Chairman of the Burkle Center for International Relations at UCLA; Trustee of the J. Paul Getty Trust; Member of the Board of the Carter Center; Trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; member of the Executive Board for the Medical Sciences at UCLA; and, Member of the Board of AIDS Project Los Angeles. Burkle has received honors and awards including the AFL-CIO Humanitarian of the Year and The Los Angeles Urban League Whitney M. Young Award.
The new leadership of CALPERS has continued to blaze new trails in the labor-capital movement, as a new national worker-friendly merchant bank was recently announced. With an expected capitalization goal of $1.5-2 billion, the new fund will be managed by Ronald Burkle of Yucaipa. Burkle, a former member of the United Food and Commercial Workers, was the AFL-CIOs Humanitarian of the Year in 1998. Besides managing private equity, the Yucaipa American Funds eventually plan to branch into providing ancillary services, such as home loans to union members and credit-card services. A second fund-of-funds will also be developed. There have been initial discussions to ensure collaboration with the Heartland Regional Network, and, generally, the national labor-capital funds coalition.
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