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ANNE C MULKERN / Denver Post 24may04
Washington — Robert Zoellick resigned as deputy U.S. secretary of state and said he will take a job with Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., the world's biggest securities firm by market value.
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"It is not without considerable sadness that I announce that Bob Zoellick will be leaving the department in the coming weeks," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today with Zoellick by her side at the State Department in Washington.
Zoellick, 52, has been a pivotal part of the administration, first as U.S. trade representative in Bush's first term and more recently as a top diplomat guiding U.S. policy toward China and in trouble spots such as Sudan.
His departure deprives the administration of a key policy maker on China, one of the U.S.'s most important relationships. Rice almost entirely handed the China portfolio to Zoellick, who coordinated a strategic dialogue designed to strengthen relations between the two nations.
Zoellick said he had been pleased to help build a "first- rate" team at the State Department and to have taken "personal charge" of issues including China, Southeast Asia, Latin America and Sudan as well as international economic issues.
He said he was pleased to be joining Goldman Sachs. Goldman spokesman Peter Rose in New York confirmed that Zoellick will be joining the firm and declined to give details. Rice did not announce a successor to Zoellick.
Revolving Door
During the Clinton administration, Zoellick was a senior international adviser for Goldman, Sachs & Co. and served as executive vice president at Washington-based Fannie Mae, the nation's largest mortgage finance company.
Zoellick joins a list of former government officials to join Goldman that includes the late Henry Fowler, U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Lyndon Johnson, and current Vice Chairman Robert Hormats, 63, an assistant U.S. secretary of state from 1981 to 1982.
Among the firm's senior advisers are three former European Union antitrust commissioners, Mario Monti, 63, Peter Sutherland, 60, and Karel van Miert, 64.
The revolving door also goes the other way. Outgoing Chief Executive Officer Henry Paulson, 60, was last month nominated by President George W. Bush to become Treasury Secretary, becoming the fourth CEO in a row to accept a federal post, according to the firm's records. Ex-leaders Robert Rubin and Stephen Friedman served as White House appointees, while Jon Corzine was elected to the Senate before becoming the governor of New Jersey.
Thanks Bush, Rice
Zoellick today thanked both Bush and Rice "for the opportunity they've afforded me," and he embraced Rice at the close of his remarks.
Zoellick, one of the Bush administration's most prominent foreign and economic policy voices, told administration officials last month that he would leave, probably to a Wall Street firm, if he wasn't named to replace Treasury Secretary John Snow, two persons familiar with the matter said. Paulson was named to the post May 30.
White House spokesman Tony Snow today said Zoellick "has been wanting to pursue opportunities in the private sector for sometime and now he's going to do it." Snow said Bush is sorry to see Zoellick go.
Zoellick, in a letter to President Bush dated June 15, wrote that he had been "pleased, in particular, to assist in reframing the U.S. approach toward China, because that relationship will be vital for America and the world."
He noted that through the peace negotiations with Sudan he managed, a new opportunity had been created "for the people of Sudan to end the violence and build a new future."
He noted that his final date of service would be determined with Rice.
Message to China
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Mindfully.org note: By his actions, Zoellick's message to China and the rest of the world is quite clear — he's only in it for the money. We're not sorry in the least to see him leave. We just wish all the Bush people would leave along with him. It's a sorry mess they've gotten us into. |
Zoellick has not been shy about delivering tough messages. Three days before Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Washington in April, Zoellick described the change in China's currency policy as "agonizingly slow."
"We need to demonstrate that our relationship with China is a two-way street," Zoellick said in a speech to the Institute for International Economics in Washington. "For us to be able to sustain this system, we're going to need their cooperation."
The main issue is China's practice of keeping the yuan, a denomination of its currency, the renminbi, from rising against the dollar. By holding the yuan at artificially low levels, China gives its companies a built-in price advantage over foreign competitors in international export markets.
In a speech on China in New York on Sept. 21, Zoellick triggered gasps in the audience of China experts by urging China to be a "responsible stakeholder" in the international system.
He persuaded the most powerful rebel group in the restive western Sudanese area of Darfur to sign a peace agreement with the government after four sleepless nights of negotiations earlier this month in Abuja, Nigeria.
"He's what we call in French `tout terrain,"' said Pascal Lamy, head of the World Trade Organization, using the term for an all-terrain vehicle, to describe Zoellick in a March interview.
source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aQfjhqJWIRAw&refer=top_world_news 19jun2006
WASHINGTON — Robert Zoellick, the State Department's No. 2 diplomat and lead voice on China policy, will leave next month to join Goldman Sachs Group Inc. as vice chairman, international.
Mr. Zoellick's departure will leave a vacuum in the Bush administration's China team, which Mr. Zoellick has led since early last year, while further burnishing Goldman's image as a mixing bowl for past and future top government officials. President Bush recently picked Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Henry Paulson as his next Treasury secretary. Former President Bill Clinton's Treasury chief, Robert Rubin, hailed from the same New York firm.
In his resignation letter, Mr. Zoellick said he was particularly proud of having "reframed" the administration's approach toward China. In a speech last summer, Mr. Zoellick called on China to become a "responsible stakeholder" in the international system. He also led a series of high-level dialogues between Washington and Beijing.
The former U.S. trade representative led a complex effort to stop the war in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised Mr. Zoellick as her "alter ego" but hasn't immediately named a successor.
U.S. officials say the likeliest candidates to succeed Mr. Zoellick are Nicholas Burns, the State Department's current No. 3 and an important player on Iran and India policy; Robert Kimmitt, deputy Treasury secretary; and Philip Zelikow, a special adviser to Ms. Rice.
Mr. Burns, a longtime foreign-service officer and former State Department spokesman, has become more active on many fronts than Mr. Zoellick was and is close to Ms. Rice.
Mr. Zoellick will join Goldman in September as a managing director and chairman of the firm's international advisers. In an internal memo sent to employees yesterday, incoming Goldman Sachs Chief Executive and Chairman Lloyd C. Blankfein said Mr. Zoellick will play a central role in advising Goldman on the firm's global strategy.
"Secretary Zoellick brings tremendous experience and judgment to the firm," said Mr. Blankfein, currently Goldman's president and chief operating officer. "His extensive knowledge of international affairs will be of great importance to the firm as we continue to expand our business around the world."
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