Robert Hormats
Encyclopedia
Robert D. 'Bob' Hormats was sworn in as Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs on September 23, 2009. Hormats was formerly Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs
(International). He joined Goldman Sachs in 1982. He served as Senior Deputy Assistant Secretary, from 1977 to 1979, and Assistant Secretary of State, from 1981 to 1982, at the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs (now Bureau of Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs
). He was Ambassador and Deputy U.S. Trade Representative from 1979 to 1981. He served as a senior staff member for International Economic Affairs on the United States National Security Council
from 1969 to 1977, where he was senior economic adviser to Henry Kissinger
, General Brent Scowcroft
and Zbigniew Brzezinski
. He helped to manage the Nixon administration's opening of diplomatic relations with China's communist government. He was a recipient of the French Legion of Honor in 1982 and the Arthur S. Flemming Award
in 1974.
Hormats has been a visiting lecturer at Princeton University
and served on the Board of Visitors of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the Dean’s Council of the John F. Kennedy School of Government
at Harvard University
.
, Foreign Policy
, The New York Times
, The Washington Post
, The Wall Street Journal
, American Banker
and The Financial Times.
, class of 1961. He earned a BA with a concentration in economics and political science from Tufts University
in 1965. He earned an M.A.
(1966), an M.A.L.D., and a PhD
in International Economics in 1970 from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
.
of the Institute for Education (IFE). He played a role in the founding of the Center for International Education (CIE) at the Washington International School
.
He is a member of Securing America's Future Energy (SAFE), the Economic Club of New York
, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
, the Irvington Institute for Immunological Research, Engelhard Corporation, and a former member of the Rockefeller Center Club, the Pacific Council on Foreign Policy, and Freedom House
. Hormats is also a member of board of directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation
(OPIC) Bob has been a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution
and a visiting lecturer at Princeton University
. He is a member of the Trilateral Commission
and is on the board of directors of the Hungarian-American Enterprise Fund, and the Council on Foreign Relations
, as well as being on the board of overseers of Tufts University
.
in America through a national bank that would develop public-private partnerships for large transportation projects. "It's a high national priority," Hormats told Congressional Quarterly
in March 2008. "Public-private cooperation is a really critical part. The needs are urgent." He and others argue that U.S. transportation infrastructure has lagged behind foreign competitors. Unless the country picks up the pace, it will not be able to support its growing trade and population.
He is an advocate of enhancing intelligence capabilities, modernizing military equipment and spending more money on preparing first- responders like firemen and emergency medical technicians for crises. He worries that future presidential administrations will spend less than they should on homeland security because to do so will require raising taxes or cutting non-defense programs. He also worries that the unpopularity of the Iraq war will cause the country to reduce its military presence overseas.
Hormats has argued that China
and America are financially intertwined. It would not be in China’s financial interest, he argued, to destabilize the dollar by recalling the country’s vast loans to the U.S. Doing so would result in a shrunken export market for China. Hormats calls this MAD - mutually assured depression. In 2004, the government fined Goldman Sachs $2 million for illegally and selectively promoting the stock of four Asian companies that were about to go public. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Hormats and others "made illegal offerings of securities to select customers in 1999 and 2000 and made inappropriate statements to the press." Hormats told four media outlets that PetroChina
, a Chinese-based oil producer, was not invested in Darfur
. The disclosure was illegal under SEC rules, because the company had not yet gone public, and Hormats would not have been allowed to comment until it had done so.
Goldman Sachs
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American multinational bulge bracket investment banking and securities firm that engages in global investment banking, securities, investment management, and other financial services primarily with institutional clients...
(International). He joined Goldman Sachs in 1982. He served as Senior Deputy Assistant Secretary, from 1977 to 1979, and Assistant Secretary of State, from 1981 to 1982, at the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs (now Bureau of Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs
Bureau of Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs
The Bureau of Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs is an agency of the U.S. Department of State charged with promoting economic security and prosperity at home and abroad. It is the single agency of the Under Secretary for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs. The Bureau's work lies at...
). He was Ambassador and Deputy U.S. Trade Representative from 1979 to 1981. He served as a senior staff member for International Economic Affairs on the United States National Security Council
United States National Security Council
The White House National Security Council in the United States is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials and is part of the Executive Office of the...
from 1969 to 1977, where he was senior economic adviser to 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...
, General Brent Scowcroft
Brent Scowcroft
Brent Scowcroft, KBE was the United States National Security Advisor under Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush and a Lieutenant General in the United States Air Force. He also served as Military Assistant to President Richard Nixon and as Deputy Assistant to the President for National...
and Zbigniew Brzezinski
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski is a Polish American political scientist, geostrategist, and statesman who served as United States National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981....
. He helped to manage the Nixon administration's opening of diplomatic relations with China's communist government. He was a recipient of the French Legion of Honor in 1982 and the Arthur S. Flemming Award
Arthur S. Flemming Award
The Arthur S. Flemming Award was established in 1948 to honor outstanding federal employees. Recognized by the President of the United States, agency heads, and the private sector, the winners are selected from all areas of the federal service. More than 500 individuals have received the award to...
in 1974.
Hormats has been a visiting lecturer at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
and served on the Board of Visitors of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the Dean’s Council of the John F. Kennedy School of Government
John F. Kennedy School of Government
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University is a public policy and public administration school, and one of Harvard's graduate and professional schools...
at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
.
Publications
His publications include The Price of Liberty: Paying for America's Wars from the Revolution to the War on Terror; Abraham Lincoln and the Global Economy; American Albatross: The Foreign Debt Dilemma; and Reforming the International Monetary System. Other publications include articles in Foreign AffairsForeign Affairs
Foreign Affairs is an American magazine and website on international relations and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually...
, Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy is a bimonthly American magazine founded in 1970 by Samuel P. Huntington and Warren Demian Manshel.Originally, the magazine was a quarterly...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, American Banker
American Banker
American Banker is a daily trade newspaper covering the financial services industry. Founded in 1836and based in New York, American Banker has approximately 50 reporters and editors in six U.S. cities who monitor developments and breaking news affecting banks...
and The Financial Times.
Education
Hormats graduated from Baltimore City CollegeBaltimore City College
The Baltimore City College , also referred to as The Castle on the Hill, historically as The College, and most commonly City, is a public high school in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. The City College curriculum includes the International Baccalaureate Programme and emphasizes study in the classics...
, class of 1961. He earned a BA with a concentration in economics and political science from Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
in 1965. He earned an M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
(1966), an M.A.L.D., and a PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in International Economics in 1970 from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University is the oldest school in the United States dedicated solely to graduate studies in international affairs. It is regarded as one of the world's foremost schools of international affairs. Every Fall, the school enrolls approximately 265...
.
Memberships
Bob is an honorary trusteeTrustee
Trustee is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, can refer to any person who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the benefit of another...
of the Institute for Education (IFE). He played a role in the founding of the Center for International Education (CIE) at the Washington International School
Washington International School
Washington International School is a coeducational international school for day students in grades pre-Kindergarten through 12...
.
He is a member of Securing America's Future Energy (SAFE), the Economic Club of New York
Economic Club of New York
The Economic Club of New York is an American nonprofit and nonpartisan membership organization dedicated to promoting the study and discussion of social, economic and political questions...
, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development is one of five institutions that compose the World Bank Group. The IBRD is an international organization whose original mission was to finance the reconstruction of nations devastated by World War II. Now, its mission has expanded to fight...
, the Irvington Institute for Immunological Research, Engelhard Corporation, and a former member of the Rockefeller Center Club, the Pacific Council on Foreign Policy, and Freedom House
Freedom House
Freedom House is an international non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights...
. Hormats is also a member of board of directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation
Overseas Private Investment Corporation
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation is an independent agency of the United States Government that mobilizes U.S. private sector investment in new and emerging markets overseas in order to support both the sustainable economic development of those markets and the creation of American jobs...
(OPIC) Bob has been a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States. One of Washington's oldest think tanks, Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and...
and a visiting lecturer at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
. He is a member of the Trilateral Commission
Trilateral Commission
The Trilateral Commission is a non-governmental, non-partisan discussion group founded by David Rockefeller in July 1973 to foster closer cooperation among the United States, Europe and Japan.-History:...
and is on the board of directors of the Hungarian-American Enterprise Fund, and 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...
, as well as being on the board of overseers of Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
.
Personal life
On November 16, 2009, Hormats received the Executive Leadership Award from the Aish Center.Points of View
Hormats has been a vocal supporter of legislation that would increase investments in infrastructureInfrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
in America through a national bank that would develop public-private partnerships for large transportation projects. "It's a high national priority," Hormats told Congressional Quarterly
Congressional Quarterly
Congressional Quarterly, Inc., or CQ, is a privately owned publishing company that produces a number of publications reporting primarily on the United States Congress...
in March 2008. "Public-private cooperation is a really critical part. The needs are urgent." He and others argue that U.S. transportation infrastructure has lagged behind foreign competitors. Unless the country picks up the pace, it will not be able to support its growing trade and population.
He is an advocate of enhancing intelligence capabilities, modernizing military equipment and spending more money on preparing first- responders like firemen and emergency medical technicians for crises. He worries that future presidential administrations will spend less than they should on homeland security because to do so will require raising taxes or cutting non-defense programs. He also worries that the unpopularity of the Iraq war will cause the country to reduce its military presence overseas.
Hormats has argued that China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and America are financially intertwined. It would not be in China’s financial interest, he argued, to destabilize the dollar by recalling the country’s vast loans to the U.S. Doing so would result in a shrunken export market for China. Hormats calls this MAD - mutually assured depression. In 2004, the government fined Goldman Sachs $2 million for illegally and selectively promoting the stock of four Asian companies that were about to go public. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Hormats and others "made illegal offerings of securities to select customers in 1999 and 2000 and made inappropriate statements to the press." Hormats told four media outlets that PetroChina
PetroChina
PetroChina Company Limited is a Chinese oil company and is the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation , headquartered in Dongcheng District, Beijing. It is China's biggest oil producer, and was the world's most valuable company by market value as of September 28th 2010...
, a Chinese-based oil producer, was not invested in Darfur
Darfur
Darfur is a region in western Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur...
. The disclosure was illegal under SEC rules, because the company had not yet gone public, and Hormats would not have been allowed to comment until it had done so.
Multimedia
- Bernard SchwartzBernard L. SchwartzBernard Leon Schwartz was the Chairman of the Board and CEO of Loral Space & Communications, Chairman and CEO of K&F Industries, Inc., Chairman and CEO of Loral Corp., and president and CEO of Globalstar. He retired from Loral and his positions at its various subsidiaries and affiliates as of...
Forum on Economic Policy, http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4052021436850786520&ei=foITS72KBMeclAe469C2Dg&q=bob+hormats&hl=en&client=firefox-a, 2007 - The Price of Liberty: Paying for America's Wars (Audio), Council of Foreign Relations, http://www.cfr.org/publication/13774/price_of_liberty.html, May 16, 2007
- A Conversation with Robert Hormats, Charlie Rose Show, http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/8588, July 10, 2007
- Speech at The Common GoodThe Common Good (Non-Profit)The Common Good is a 501 non-profit, non-partisan information and public advocacy organization of the media, business, arts and entertainment communities. It was originally established in 1987 in Los Angeles in the entertainment industry as Show Coalition and is now headquartered in New York City...
, http://www.thecommongood.net/?p=264, April 10, 2008 - 2008 Aspen Ideas Festival, http://www.plumtv.com/videos/aspen-bob-hormats-goldman-sachs/index.html, July 9, 2008
- Financial Challenges Facing the Next President, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy ResearchStanford Institute for Economic Policy ResearchThe Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research is a nonpartisan economic research institution housed at Stanford University. It was founded in 1982 as a way to bring together economic scholars from different parts of the University. George Shultz was a key player in its inception...
(SIEPR) Associates Meeting, http://www-siepr.stanford.edu/news/SIEPRHormats10708full.wmv, October 6, 2008 - Q&A at bigthink.com http://bigthink.com/roberthormats, 2008
- Inside Look - Clinton's Trip to Asia - BloombergBloomberg L.P.Bloomberg L.P. is an American privately held financial software, media, and data company. Bloomberg makes up one third of the $16 billion global financial data market with estimated revenue of $6.9 billion. Bloomberg L.P...
, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl1JxpI7t74, February 14, 2009 - Nomination hearing, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjbyfJqiZuA, September 10, 2009 (excerpt)
- Interview at event co-hosted by AmCham-China and the US-China Business Council (USCBC), http://www.amchamchina.org/article/5280, BeijingBeijingBeijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, November 20, 2009
Documentation
- Senate Opening Statement for Nomination Hearing for Robert Hormats, Sen. Richard Lugar, http://foreign.senate.gov/testimony/2009/LugarStatement090909a.pdf, September 9, 2009
- Senate testimony, http://foreign.senate.gov/testimony/2009/HormatsTestimony090909a.pdf, September 9, 2009