Lynn Forester de Rothschild
Encyclopedia
Lynn Forester, Lady de Rothschild (b. July 2, 1954 in New Jersey
, U.S.
) is the chief executive officer of E.L. Rothschild, a holding company
she owns with her third husband, Sir Evelyn Robert de Rothschild
, a member of the Rothschild family
. The company manages investments in The Economist Group, owner of The Economist
magazine, Congressional Quarterly and the Economist Intelligence Unit, Weather Central LP, the world's largest provider of weather software and data to the broadcast industry, as well as real estate, agricultural and food interests. By virtue of her marriage to a knight
, she is known socially as Lady de Rothschild.
, and daughter of John Kenneth Forester, president and owner of the General Aviation Company, now Meridian in Teterboro, N.J., she is a Phi Beta Kappa Magna Cum Laude graduate of Pomona College
and an honors graduate of Columbia Law School
. She also studied international law at the Graduate Institute of International Studies
in Geneva, Switzerland. From 1980-1984, she was an associate at the Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
law firm.
Lynn Forester de Rothschild has stated that her first business success came at the age of 16 when she bought US made blue jeans and brought them to sell in Israel during her vacation there and sold them for up to ten times what they had originally cost her.
After meeting telecommunications billionaire John Kluge while doing legal work for him as a law firm associate, she became Executive Vice President for Development at Metromedia Inc from 1984-1989.
From 1989 to 2002, Lynn Forester de Rothschild owned and operated various telecommunication companies worldwide that revolutionized the broadband and wireless industries. From 1989 to 1995, Lady de Rothschild was the majority shareholder, Chairman and CEO, of TPI Communications International, Inc., one of the largest providers of paging, wireless data and cellular telephone service in Latin America, owned with Motorola. While under her management, TPI tripled its size and per-customer revenues, and cash flow grew to three times the U.S. average. In addition, she expanded operations from Puerto Rico into Latin America. TPI was sold in a private transaction for an undisclosed sum in the mid-90s.
In 1995, Lady de Rothschild pioneered the broadband wireless industry when she founded FirstMark Communications Inc, in the United States. In 1997, she sold her US interests in order to focus on international opportunities. In 1998, she founded FirstMark Communications of Europe, with the mission of building a pan-European broadband Internet company. Having secured licenses in Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Finland and built a 20,000 klm fiber network in 15 countries, she sold the company in June 2000, in the largest private equity placement in the history of the European competitive telecommunications sector.Boasted on its Board of Directors Nathan Myhrvold of Microsoft, Washington D.C. power broker Vernon Jordan and Henry Kissinger. The company was sold in June 2000 in a $1 billion financing, the largest private equity placement in the history of the European competitive telecommunications sector. In discussing her personal business success between 1989 and 2000, Forester has said: "I think a lot of it is that I was lucky...most of all I learned that it's better to be lucky than to be smart."
Lady de Rothschild serves on the Board of Directors of Estée Lauder
Companies, The Economist Group
, Weather Central LLC and Christies International. Previously, she served on the Boards of Directors of Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation and General Instruments, Inc.
Her second husband was Andrew Stein
, a New York politician and son of a multi-millionaire businessman, Jerry Finklestein. Stein is nine years older than Forester and was Manhattan Borough President at the time of their marriage. They wed on March 12, 1983, and had two children, Ben and Jake. They were divorced in 1993.
Lynn Forester de Rothschild was introduced to Sir Evelyn de Rothschild by Henry Kissinger
at the 1998 Bilderberg Group
conference in Scotland
, and they married on November 30, 2000 in London
, England
, after Rothschild (almost 23 years older than Forester) had left his wife and three children. She is his third wife. On the announcement of the marriage, the de Rothschild couple were invited to spend their honeymoon at the White House
.
The couple splits their time between New York and London. In response to a reporter's question about her wealth, Forester said,
“Is that said about me? I hope not. I mean, I’m just who I am. I don’t think being rich is that important. I think not being boring is really important.”
's 2008 Presidential bid and has received attention for endorsing John McCain
for President
. On June 22, 2011, she hosted a fundraiser for Jon Huntsman, Jr.
's presidential campaign.
From 1993–1995, she served on President Bill Clinton's National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council. From 1998-2000, Lynn Forester de Rothschild served on the US Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Committee.
Lynn Forester de Rothschild is actively involved in policy issues and social issues, including micro-finance and women's rights. the philanthropic sector. In 2006, she was appointed as a member of the UN Advisors Group on Inclusive Financial Services. She serves as Chairman of the Board for the American Patrons of the Tate Gallery, FAI (Fondo per L’Ambiente Italiano), and the International Advisory Board of Columbia University School of Law. In addition, she serves as a Trustee of the ERANDA Foundation (a Rothschild family foundation), the Outward Bound Trust, the Alfred Herrhausen Society of International Dialogue of Deutsche Bank and the Global Commercial Microfinance Consortium Advisory Board of Deutsche Bank. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations
(USA), Chatham House
(UK), the Institute for Strategic Studies (UK), the International Advisory Council of Asia House (UK), and the Foreign Policy Association
(USA).
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
) is the chief executive officer of E.L. Rothschild, a holding company
Holding company
A holding company is a company or firm that owns other companies' outstanding stock. It usually refers to a company which does not produce goods or services itself; rather, its purpose is to own shares of other companies. Holding companies allow the reduction of risk for the owners and can allow...
she owns with her third husband, Sir Evelyn Robert de Rothschild
Evelyn Robert de Rothschild
Sir Evelyn Robert Adrian de Rothschild is a British financier, and a member of the Rothschild family.-Early life:The son of Anthony Gustav de Rothschild and Yvonne Cahen d'Anvers , he was named after his uncle Evelyn Achille de Rothschild who was killed in action in World War I...
, a member of the Rothschild family
Rothschild family
The Rothschild family , known as The House of Rothschild, or more simply as the Rothschilds, is a Jewish-German family that established European banking and finance houses starting in the late 18th century...
. The company manages investments in The Economist Group, owner of The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
magazine, Congressional Quarterly and the Economist Intelligence Unit, Weather Central LP, the world's largest provider of weather software and data to the broadcast industry, as well as real estate, agricultural and food interests. By virtue of her marriage to a knight
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
, she is known socially as Lady de Rothschild.
Career
Raised in Oradell, New JerseyOradell, New Jersey
Oradell is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. At the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 7,978. The borough's territory includes a dam on the Hackensack River that forms the Oradell Reservoir...
, and daughter of John Kenneth Forester, president and owner of the General Aviation Company, now Meridian in Teterboro, N.J., she is a Phi Beta Kappa Magna Cum Laude graduate of Pomona College
Pomona College
Pomona College is a private, residential, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. Founded in 1887 in Pomona, California by a group of Congregationalists, the college moved to Claremont in 1889 to the site of a hotel, retaining its name. The school enrolls 1,548 students.The founding member...
and an honors graduate of Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, is one of the oldest and most prestigious law schools in the United States. A member of the Ivy League, Columbia Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Columbia University in New York City. It offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in...
. She also studied international law at the Graduate Institute of International Studies
Graduate Institute of International Studies
The Graduate Institute of International Studies, best known as HEI , was founded in 1927 as one of the first institutions in the world dedicated to the study of international relations...
in Geneva, Switzerland. From 1980-1984, she was an associate at the Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is a law firm headquartered in New York City which employs over 800 attorneys in ten offices worldwide. The firm is highly regarded for its litigation and corporate practices, with special attention focused on its mergers and acquisitions specialty...
law firm.
Lynn Forester de Rothschild has stated that her first business success came at the age of 16 when she bought US made blue jeans and brought them to sell in Israel during her vacation there and sold them for up to ten times what they had originally cost her.
After meeting telecommunications billionaire John Kluge while doing legal work for him as a law firm associate, she became Executive Vice President for Development at Metromedia Inc from 1984-1989.
From 1989 to 2002, Lynn Forester de Rothschild owned and operated various telecommunication companies worldwide that revolutionized the broadband and wireless industries. From 1989 to 1995, Lady de Rothschild was the majority shareholder, Chairman and CEO, of TPI Communications International, Inc., one of the largest providers of paging, wireless data and cellular telephone service in Latin America, owned with Motorola. While under her management, TPI tripled its size and per-customer revenues, and cash flow grew to three times the U.S. average. In addition, she expanded operations from Puerto Rico into Latin America. TPI was sold in a private transaction for an undisclosed sum in the mid-90s.
In 1995, Lady de Rothschild pioneered the broadband wireless industry when she founded FirstMark Communications Inc, in the United States. In 1997, she sold her US interests in order to focus on international opportunities. In 1998, she founded FirstMark Communications of Europe, with the mission of building a pan-European broadband Internet company. Having secured licenses in Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Finland and built a 20,000 klm fiber network in 15 countries, she sold the company in June 2000, in the largest private equity placement in the history of the European competitive telecommunications sector.Boasted on its Board of Directors Nathan Myhrvold of Microsoft, Washington D.C. power broker Vernon Jordan and Henry Kissinger. The company was sold in June 2000 in a $1 billion financing, the largest private equity placement in the history of the European competitive telecommunications sector. In discussing her personal business success between 1989 and 2000, Forester has said: "I think a lot of it is that I was lucky...most of all I learned that it's better to be lucky than to be smart."
Lady de Rothschild serves on the Board of Directors of Estée Lauder
Estée Lauder
Estée Lauder may refer to:* Estée Lauder * Estée Lauder Companies...
Companies, The Economist Group
The Economist Group
The Economist Group is a leading source of analysis on international business and world affairs, delivering information through a range of formats, from newspaper and magazines to conferences and electronic services...
, Weather Central LLC and Christies International. Previously, she served on the Boards of Directors of Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation and General Instruments, Inc.
Personal life
Forester's first marriage, to Alexander Hartley Platt, a doctor's son from New Jersey, took place at Brick Presbyterian Church on May 20, 1978.Her second husband was Andrew Stein
Andrew Stein
Andrew Stein was a Democratic politician who served on the New York City Council and was its last President, and as Manhattan Borough President. Stein's father is Jerry Finkelstein, the retired multi-millionaire publisher of the New York Law Journal, among other publications...
, a New York politician and son of a multi-millionaire businessman, Jerry Finklestein. Stein is nine years older than Forester and was Manhattan Borough President at the time of their marriage. They wed on March 12, 1983, and had two children, Ben and Jake. They were divorced in 1993.
Lynn Forester de Rothschild was introduced to Sir Evelyn de Rothschild by Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
at the 1998 Bilderberg Group
Bilderberg Group
The Bilderberg Group, Bilderberg conference, or Bilderberg Club is an annual, unofficial, invitation-only conference of approximately 120 to 140 guests from North America and Western Europe, most of whom are people of influence. About one-third are from government and politics, and two-thirds from...
conference in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, and they married on November 30, 2000 in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, after Rothschild (almost 23 years older than Forester) had left his wife and three children. She is his third wife. On the announcement of the marriage, the de Rothschild couple were invited to spend their honeymoon at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
.
The couple splits their time between New York and London. In response to a reporter's question about her wealth, Forester said,
“Is that said about me? I hope not. I mean, I’m just who I am. I don’t think being rich is that important. I think not being boring is really important.”
Politics
Lynn Forester de Rothschild was a major fund raiser for Hillary Rodham ClintonHillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
's 2008 Presidential bid and has received attention for endorsing John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
for President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
. On June 22, 2011, she hosted a fundraiser for Jon Huntsman, Jr.
Jon Huntsman, Jr.
Jon Meade Huntsman, Jr. is an American politician and diplomat who served as the 16th Governor of Utah. He also served in the administrations of four United States presidents and is a candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.Huntsman worked as a White House staff assistant for...
's presidential campaign.
From 1993–1995, she served on President Bill Clinton's National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council. From 1998-2000, Lynn Forester de Rothschild served on the US Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Committee.
Lynn Forester de Rothschild is actively involved in policy issues and social issues, including micro-finance and women's rights. the philanthropic sector. In 2006, she was appointed as a member of the UN Advisors Group on Inclusive Financial Services. She serves as Chairman of the Board for the American Patrons of the Tate Gallery, FAI (Fondo per L’Ambiente Italiano), and the International Advisory Board of Columbia University School of Law. In addition, she serves as a Trustee of the ERANDA Foundation (a Rothschild family foundation), the Outward Bound Trust, the Alfred Herrhausen Society of International Dialogue of Deutsche Bank and the Global Commercial Microfinance Consortium Advisory Board of Deutsche Bank. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
(USA), Chatham House
Chatham House
Chatham House, formally known as The Royal Institute of International Affairs, is a non-profit, non-governmental organization based in London whose mission is to analyse and promote the understanding of major international issues and current affairs. It is regarded as one of the world's leading...
(UK), the Institute for Strategic Studies (UK), the International Advisory Council of Asia House (UK), and the Foreign Policy Association
Foreign Policy Association
The Foreign Policy Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring the American public to learn more about the world. Founded in 1918, it serves as a catalyst for developing awareness, understanding of, and providing informed opinions on global issues...
(USA).