Kissinger Associates, Inc. is a
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
-based international
geopolitical
Geopolitics (from Greek γῆ ''gê'' "earth, land" and πολιτική ''politikḗ'' "politics") is the study of the effects of Earth's geography (human and physical) on politics and international relations. While geopolitics usually refers to ...
consulting firm
A consulting firm or simply consultancy is a professional service firm that provides expertise and specialised labour for a fee, through the use of consultants. Consulting firms may have one employee or thousands; they may consult in a broad range ...
, founded and run by
Henry Kissinger
Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...
since 1982. The firm assists its clients in identifying strategic partners and investment opportunities and advising them on
government relations
In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...
.
History
The firm was founded in 1982 by Henry Kissinger. In 1999
Mack McLarty
Thomas Franklin "Mack" McLarty, III (born June 14, 1946) is an American business and political leader who served as President Bill Clinton's first White House Chief of Staff from 1993 to June 1994, and subsequently as Counselor to the Presiden ...
joined Kissinger to expand the firm and its New York headquarters to open Kissinger McLarty Associates, with the firm's Washington office on
Eighteenth and Pennsylvania streets in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
McLarty was
White House Chief of Staff under
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
. Kissinger McLarty is a corporate member of the
Council of the Americas
Council of the Americas is an American organization whose stated goal is promoting free trade and open markets throughout the Americas.
History
The group was founded in 1963 as the Business Group for Latin America by David Rockefeller, at the ...
, the New York-based business organization established by
David Rockefeller
David Rockefeller (June 12, 1915 – March 20, 2017) was an American investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of the Rockefeller family, ...
in 1965.
[ As of January 2008, the two firms have separated after just under a decade and McLarty Associates, headed by Mack McLarty, is an independent firm based in Washington.
Kissinger Associates was located for nearly 40 years at 350 ]Park Avenue
Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenu ...
at Fifty-first Street __FORCETOC__
51st Street is a long one-way street traveling east to west across Midtown Manhattan.
Notable places, east to west
The route officially begins at Beekman Place which is on a hill overlooking FDR Drive. 51st continues for a few ...
, in a building also occupied by Peter Peterson's Blackstone Group
Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate b ...
. and now on East 57th Street. It was established in July 1982 after loans had been secured from Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...
and a consortium of three other banks. These loans were repaid in two years; by 1987 annual revenues had reached $5 million.[Isaacson, ''Kissinger'', p.732.]
Kissinger Associates doesn’t disclose its clients under U.S. lobbying laws. The firm once threatened to sue Congress to resist a subpoena for its client list. It has in the past advised American Express
American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...
, Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC is an American brewing company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2008, it has been wholly owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (AB InBev), now the world's largest brewing company, which owns multiple glo ...
, Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...
, Daewoo
Daewoo ( ; Hangul: , Hanja: , ; literally "great universe" and a portmanteau of "dae" meaning great, and the given name of founder and chairman Kim Woo-choong) also known as the Daewoo Group, was a major South Korean chaebol (type of conglomerat ...
, Midland Bank
Midland Bank Plc was one of the Big Four banking groups in the United Kingdom for most of the 20th century. It is now part of HSBC. The bank was founded as the Birmingham and Midland Bank in Union Street, Birmingham, England in August 1836. It ...
, H. J. Heinz
Henry John Heinz (October 11, 1844 – May 14, 1919) was an American entrepreneur of Palatine descent who, at the age of 25, co-founded a small horseradish concern in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania. This business failed, but his second business exp ...
, ITT Corporation
ITT Inc., formerly ITT Corporation, is an American worldwide manufacturing company based in Stamford, Connecticut. The company produces specialty components for the aerospace, transportation, energy and industrial markets. ITT's three businesses ...
, LM Ericsson
(lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informat ...
, Fiat
Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...
, and Volvo
The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...
. But the firm does belong to the U.S.–Russia Business Council, a trade group that includes ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30, ...
, JPMorgan Chase
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the ...
, and Pfizer
Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered on 42nd Street in Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in 1849 in New York by two German entrepreneurs, Charles Pfizer ...
.
Organization
Associated organizations
Kissinger Associates has had strategic alliances with several firms, including:
*APCO Worldwide
APCO Worldwide is a independent global public affairs and strategic communications consultancy. With 680 employees in 35 worldwide locations, it is also the fifth largest independently owned PR firm in the United States. Headquartered in Wa ...
, (October 12, 2004)
*The Blackstone Group
Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate b ...
, an investment and advisory firm
*Hakluyt & Company
Hakluyt & Company is a British strategic advisory firm. The company is headquartered in London and has subsidiary offices in New York, Dallas, San Francisco, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Singapore, Mumbai, Chicago and Sydney.
Hakluyt avoids publicity, b ...
, a strategic intelligence and advisory firm
*Covington & Burling
Covington & Burling LLP is an American multinational law firm. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the firm advises clients on transactional, litigation, regulatory, and public policy matters. In 2021, Vault.com ranked Covington & Burling as th ...
, international law firm (2003)
Prominent staff
*L. Paul Bremer
Lewis Paul Bremer III (born September 30, 1941) is an American diplomat. He led the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) following the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States, from May 2003 until June 2004.
Early life and education
Born on ...
, former managing director and former Iraq Director of Reconstruction
*Nelson Cunningham
Nelson Cunningham is an American attorney and a Democratic political advisor who served in the presidential administrations of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Early life and education
He spent much of his childhood in Latin America, where he be ...
, political advisor and managing partner at Kissinger McLarty
*Lawrence Eagleburger
Lawrence Sidney Eagleburger (August 1, 1930 – June 4, 2011) was an American statesman and career diplomat, who served briefly as the Secretary of State under President George H. W. Bush from December 1992 to January 1993, one of the shortest te ...
, former U.S. Secretary of State
The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...
* Richard W. Fisher, President, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas covers the Eleventh Federal Reserve District, which includes Texas, northern Louisiana and southern New Mexico, a district sometimes referred to as the Oil Patch.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas is one of 12 ...
*Timothy F. Geithner
Timothy Franz Geithner (; born August 18, 1961) is a former American central banker who served as the 75th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013. He was the President of the Federal Reserve Bank o ...
, former U.S. Secretary of Treasury
The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal ...
*Jami Miscik
Judith A. "Jami" Miscik (born 1958) is an American intelligence analyst who was also the Central Intelligence Agency's Deputy Director for Intelligence, the Agency's most senior analytic post. In 2005 she left CIA to become Global Head of Sovereig ...
, former president and vice chairman, former CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
Deputy Director for Intelligence
*Joshua Cooper Ramo
Joshua Cooper Ramo (born December 14, 1968) is vice chairman and co-chief executive of Kissinger Associates, the consulting firm of former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. He is also the author of several non-fiction books including two ...
, former Managing Director, former senior editor of ''Time Magazine
''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...
''
*Bill Richardson
William Blaine Richardson III (born November 15, 1947) is an American politician, author, and diplomat who served as the 30th governor of New Mexico from 2003 to 2011. He was also the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Energy Secretary ...
, former senior managing director, former U.S diplomat, past Governor of New Mexico
, insignia = Seal of the Governor of New Mexico.svg
, insigniasize = 110px
, insigniacaption = Seal of the Governor
, image = File:Michelle Lujan Grisham 2021.jpg
, imagesize = 200px
, alt =
, incumbent = Michelle Lujan Grisham
, incu ...
, past Energy Secretary, past UN Ambassador
A permanent representative to the United Nations (sometimes called a "UN ambassador")"History of Ambassadors", United States Mission to the United Nations, March 2011, webpagUSUN-a. is the head of a country's diplomatic mission to the United Nati ...
*J. Stapleton Roy
James Stapleton Roy (; born June 16, 1935) is a former senior United States diplomat specializing in Asian affairs. A fluent Chinese speaker, Roy spent much of his career in East Asia, where his assignments included Bangkok
Bangkok, official ...
, vice-chairman and former senior U.S. diplomat
*Brent Scowcroft
Brent Scowcroft (; March 19, 1925August 6, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer who was a two-time United States National Security Advisor, first under U.S. President Gerald Ford and then under George H. W. Bush. He served as Military Assi ...
, former vice-chairman and former U.S. National Security Advisor
*John O. Brennan
John Owen Brennan (born September 22, 1955) is a former American intelligence officer who served as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from March 2013 to January 2017. He served as chief counterterrorism advisor to U.S. Presi ...
, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
The director of the Central Intelligence Agency (D/CIA) is a statutory office () that functions as the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, which in turn is a part of the United States Intelligence Community.
Beginning February 2017, the D ...
, world affairs consultant
Directors
*Lord Carrington
Peter Alexander Rupert Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, Baron Carington of Upton, (6 June 1919 – 9July 2018), was a British Conservative Party politician and hereditary peer who served as Defence Secretary from 1970 to 1974, Foreign Secret ...
, former NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
Secretary-General (from 1982)
*Pehr G. Gyllenhammar
Pehr Gustaf Gyllenhammar (born 28 April 1935) is a Swedish businessman. He is mainly known for his 24 years as CEO and chairman of Volvo, between 1970 and 1994. In the early 1980s he took the initiative for the European Round Table of Industriali ...
, Volvo
The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...
Chairman (from 1982)
*William D. Rogers
William Dill Rogers (May 12, 1927 in Wilmington, Delaware – September 22, 2007 in Upperville, Virginia) was an American lawyer. He served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (October 1974 – June 1976) and U ...
, former Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs (from 1982)
*Eric Roll
Eric Roll, Baron Roll of Ipsden (born Erich Roll; 1 December 1907 – 30 March 2005) was a British academic economist, public servant and banker. He was made a life peer in 1977.
Biography
Roll was born in Nowosielitza, Austro-Hungarian Empir ...
,[
] S. G. Warburg & Co Chairman (from 1984)
*William E. Simon
William Edward Simon (November 27, 1927 – June 3, 2000) was an American businessman and philanthropist who served as the 63rd United States Secretary of the Treasury. He became the Secretary of the Treasury on May 9, 1974, during the Nixon admi ...
,[ former U.S. Treasury Secretary (from 1984)
*]Saburo Okita
Saburō Ōkita (大来 佐武郎 ''Ōkita Saburō'') (3 November 1914 – 9 February 1993) was a Japanese economist and politician noted for his role in the postwar development of the Japanese economy and Japan-US relations.
Early life and educ ...
,[ former Japanese Foreign Minister
*
*]Étienne Davignon
Étienne, Count Davignon (born 4 October 1932 in Budapest, Hungary) is a Belgian politician, businessman, and former vice-president of the European Commission.
Career
After receiving a Doctorate of Law from the Catholic University of Louvain, ...
, former European Commissioner
* Gary Falle, Falle Strategies
Clients
Kissinger Associates does not disclose its list of corporate clients, and reportedly bars clients from acknowledging the relationship. However, over time details from proxy statements and the tendency of senior businessmen to talk about their relationship with Kissinger have leaked out and a number of major corporate clients have been identified.[Isaacson, '' Kissinger: A Biography'', pp.730-751.]
The secrecy of their corporate client list has caused problems where Kissinger or a member of his staff were called to public service. In 1989, George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...
nominated Lawrence Eagleburger
Lawrence Sidney Eagleburger (August 1, 1930 – June 4, 2011) was an American statesman and career diplomat, who served briefly as the Secretary of State under President George H. W. Bush from December 1992 to January 1993, one of the shortest te ...
as his Deputy Secretary of State
The deputy secretary of state of the United States is the principal deputy to the United States Secretary of State, secretary of state. The current deputy secretary of state is Wendy Ruth Sherman, serving since April 2021 under United States Secre ...
. Congress required that Eagleburger disclose the names of 16 clients, some of which were his through his Kissinger Associates affiliation. Later, Kissinger himself was appointed chairman of the by George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
. Congressional Democrats insisted that Kissinger disclose the names of clients. Kissinger and President Bush claimed that such disclosures were not necessary, but Kissinger ultimately stepped down, citing conflicts of interest.
A selected list of the more notable companies (from over two dozen in total) since 1982; his directorships where applicable; and some countries where known advice/contacts were used:
*American Express
American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...
- Director (Hungary, Japan)
*American International Group
American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is an American multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. , AIG companies employed 49,600 people.https://www.aig.com/content/dam/aig/amer ...
- Director, International Advisory Committee (Argentina, China, South Korea)
*Atlantic Richfield
ARCO ( ) is a brand of gasoline stations currently owned by Marathon Petroleum after BP sold its rights. BP commercializes the brand in Northern California, Oregon and Washington, while Marathon has rights for the rest of the United States and ...
*Chase Manhattan Bank
JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase Bank or often as Chase, is an American national bank headquartered in New York City, that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of the U.S. multinational banking and fina ...
(now JPMorgan Chase
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the ...
) - Chairman, International Advisory Committee
*Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...
(Malaysia)
*Fiat
Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...
*Freeport-McMoRan
Freeport-McMoRan Inc., often called Freeport, is an American mining company based in the Freeport-McMoRan Center, in Phoenix, Arizona. The company is the world's largest producer of molybdenum, is a major copper producer and operates the world's ...
- Director (Burma, Indonesia, Panama)
*Heinz
The H. J. Heinz Company is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869. Heinz manufactures thousands of food products in plants on six conti ...
(Ivory Coast, Turkey, Zimbabwe)
* Hollinger, Inc. - Director
*Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Gol ...
Kissinger McLarty Assoc. is listed as a creditor in the Bankruptcy Filings.
*Merck
Merck refers primarily to the German Merck family and three companies founded by the family, including:
* the Merck Group, a German chemical, pharmaceutical and life sciences company founded in 1668
** Merck Serono (known as EMD Serono in the Unite ...
*Rio Tinto Group
Rio Tinto Group is an Anglo-Australian Multinational corporation, multinational company that is the world's second-largest metals and mining corporation (behind BHP). The company was founded in 1873 when of a group of investors purchased a mine ...
*Volvo
The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...
*Warburg
Warburg (; Westphalian language, Westphalian: ''Warberich'' or ''Warborg'') is a town in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, central Germany on the river Diemel near the three-state point shared by Hessen, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. It ...
References
{{reflist, 2
Bibliography
*, ''Kissinger: 1923-1968'', New York: Penguin Press, 2015.
*Walter Isaacson
Walter Seff Isaacson (born May 20, 1952) is an American author, journalist, and professor. He has been the President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C., the chair and CEO of CNN, ...
, ''Kissinger: A Biography'', New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992, updated 2005.
External links
Kissinger Associates, Inc. by SourceWatch
Organizations based in New York City
Foreign policy and strategy think tanks in the United States
Consulting firms established in 1982
1982 establishments in New York City
Henry Kissinger