The Stephen Friedman Flock

No sooner had we gotten rid of Harvey Pitt and William Webster…


Sightings from The Catbird Seat

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December 8, 2002

Stephen Friedman is Bush’s pick to head his National Economic Council

By Jonathan Weisman and Mike Allen, Washington Post

President Bush’s new economic team will come to Washington with a ready-made package of tax cuts to stimulate the economy and with high expectations that the new team members can prod the economy out of its doldrums.

Barring a hitch, White House officials plan to announce the new economic team tomorrow, just three days after Friday’s abrupt resignation of Treasury Secretary Paul H. O’Neill and White House economic adviser Lawrence B. Lindsey.

Stephen Friedman, former chairman of the investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc., has accepted Bush’s offer to replace Lindsey as director of the National Economic Council, officials said.

A senior administration official said O’Neill’s successor will be a business executive who can communicate Bush’s policies to economic and business elites, as well as to Congress. Another source described the role as “horse whisperer to Wall Street,” where executives felt insulted by O’Neill’s cavalier treatment.

White House and congressional sources say the shake-up will have little impact on Bush’s economic policies. The new team’s role will be primarily to communicate policy, not make it, White House officials said.

Lobbyists involved in the discussions said the needs of Bush’s reelection campaign are already driving administration discussions about the stimulus package.

One of those lobbyists said Bush’s senior adviser, Karl C. Rove, was very aware that President George H.W. Bush did not get credit in 1992 for a recovery that was underway, but only began registering with the public after he had lost reelection.

“The most important thing in ’04 is to have a year of economic growth under your belt,” the lobbyist said. “People have to hear things are getting better for a long time before they really believe it.”

To that end, Lindsey met with top Republican leadership and economic aides last week to present the components of a tax cut package that will be presented early next year as an economic stimulus proposal. The goal, Lindsey told them, is to push the economy to a 4 percent growth rate, about where it was in the quarter that ended in September but well above the current level. Many forecasters say the economy will have grown at an anemic 1.5 percent rate in the final quarter of this year.

Opting against dramatic measures to put money into consumers’ pockets, the White House is forming a package that will lean heavily toward investment incentives, senior Republican congressional aides say. It will include some reduction of the tax on corporate dividends, an added tax write-off for corporations investing in plants and equipment, and a higher limit on annual contributions to retirement accounts, such as 401(k)s and Individual Retirement Accounts.

For consumers, the administration is expected to accelerate income tax cuts planned for 2004 to 2003, and is still considering whether to speed up the scheduled increase in the per-child tax credit. Last year’s 10-year, $1.35 trillion tax cut slowly increases the child credit from $500 to $1,000, but so far, it has been bumped up to only $600. House Republican leaders would like to see it go higher faster, possibly to $1,000 immediately.

The resignations have delayed the announcement of the tax package until January, administration officials said. Bush had planned to announce the proposal in December in the hope that the House would pass part of it before his State of the Union address at the end of January. . . .

Whether any of this will work to boost the economy is anyone’s guess, economists say. The problem for an administration geared up only for tax cutting is stark. The tax cuts could be aimed at getting money to consumers in the hope that more spending will boost the economy, but consumer spending has stayed strong and consumer confidence is already on the upswing.

The tax cuts could be aimed at spurring business investment, but if businesses believe the investment binge of the 1990s has left them with too much production capacity, no amount of tax incentives will get them to invest more, said Sen. Jon S. Corzine (D-N.J.), a former chairman of Goldman Sachs. The temporary tax break for business investment that was approved early this year “has done nothing” so far, Corzine said.

“I really think we’re in a position where we have [squandered] our advantages,” one Democratic tax aide said, “and I don’t know where we go from here.”

To make matters worse, state governments grappling with deepening fiscal crises will be working at cross-purposes with the administration, raising taxes and cutting spending just as Washington cuts taxes and raises spending, said Raymond C. Scheppach, executive director of the National Governors Association.

Besides, some economists and lobbyists say, the impediments to a robust recovery may be out of the control of the economic team.

“We’re facing uncertainties that have never existed before,” said Mark A. Bloomfield, president of the American Council for Capital Formation, a business-backed interest group.

“You have the uncertainties of the war, the uncertainties of things like terrorism, the uncertainties of corporate governance.”

The job of the new team, and especially the new Treasury secretary, is to establish credibility quickly, Bloomfield said.

The Treasury candidates being discussed in Republican circles include Gerald R. Parsky, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who was chairman of Bush’s California campaign.

Charles Schwab, founder of the discount brokerage firm, is identified with small investors and had good rapport with Bush at his economic summit in Waco, Tex., in August. But Schwab is detested by Wall Street executives for taking shots at them in his commercials.

Republicans said Dennis Weatherstone, who was chairman of J.P. Morgan & Co., would be a choice who would not offend any important constituency.

Other names being discussed in GOP circles include John C. Whitehead, a former State Department official and former chairman of Goldman Sachs who is now chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.

Also mentioned was Peter G. Peterson, chairman of the Blackstone Group, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Council on Foreign Relations. His writings have advocated controversial methods for reducing the deficit.

© 2002 The Washington Post Company

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May 2, 2002

Steve Friedman Joins Goldman Sachs’ Board of Directors

NEW YORK — The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) announced today that Stephen Friedman, Senior Principal of Marsh & McLennan Capital, Inc., has joined its Board of Directors. Mr. Friedman served as Chairman and Senior Partner of Goldman Sachs from 1990 to 1994.

“Over the course of his three decade-long career at Goldman Sachs, Steve’s keen strategic sense and focus helped us expand our global presence and achieve preeminence in our core investment banking businesses,” said Henry M. Paulson, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs. “Steve has a deep knowledge and understanding of our firm and industry and is a highly-qualified addition to our Board of Directors.”

Mr. Friedman spent nearly 30 years with Goldman Sachs, retiring as Chairman and Senior Partner. From 1987, he worked closely in executive leadership of the firm with Bob Rubin, first as Vice Chairmen and Co-Chief Operating Officers and then as Senior Partners and Co-Chairmen, until Mr. Rubin joined the Clinton Administration in 1992. Mr. Friedman continued as sole Senior Partner and Chairman until his retirement from the firm. Earlier assignments at Goldman Sachs included co-head of the Investment Banking and Fixed Income Divisions and head of the Mergers and Acquisitions Department. He became a partner in 1973 and joined the Management Committee in 1982.

In addition to his role as Senior Principal of MMC Capital, Mr. Friedman currently serves as a director of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and Fannie Mae. Mr. Friedman is also a member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and is Chairman Emeritus of Columbia University.

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STATEMENT BY WARREN B. RUDMAN,

CHAIRMAN OF THE PRESIDENT’S

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE ADVISORY BOARD (PFIAB)

In response to the President’s request for the PFIAB to undertake a review of the security and counterintelligence threat to the Department of Energy’s weapons labs, I am pleased to announce that I have asked PFIAB Members Ms. Ann Caracristi and Dr. Sidney Drell to join me on a special panel of the Board to conduct this inquiry. In addition, the President (Clinton) recently has announced his intent to appoint Mr. Stephen Friedman to the PFIAB, and I intend to ask Mr. Friedman to become a panel member immediately upon his appointment.

Ms. Caracristi, as esteemed intelligence veteran, was Deputy Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) from 1980 to 1982. . . . She currently serves on the Board of Visitors of the Joint Military Intelligence College ans as a Consultant to the NSA Scientific Board. Ms. Caracristi also sits on the Intelligence Oversight Board, a standing committee of the PFIAB that advised the President on the legality of US foreign intelligence activities.

Dr. Drell, a world-renowned physicist and arms control specialist, is Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics at the Stanford University Linear Accelerator Center and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute, Stanford University. . .

Mr. Friedman, a highly-respected and successful businessman, was for years a General Partner of Goldman, Sachs & Co., and retired as its Chairman in 1994. He is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Columbia University, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Brookings Institution, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Mr. Friedman served on the Commission of the Roles and Capabilities of the US Intelligence Community and on the Jeremiah Panel, which reviewed the National Reconnaissance Office. He currently is a Senior Principal of Marsh & McLennan Capital, Inc. . . .

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CIA PRESS RELEASE

29 September 1999

In-Q-It and CIA Partner to Find
Leading-Edge Technology Solutions

New Entity Seeks to Partner with the IT Community
to Solve Problems of Joint Interest

WASHINGTON, DC — To ensure that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) remains at the cutting-edge of information technology advances and capabilities, the Director of Central Intelligence, George J. Tenet, today joined Gilman G. Louie, President and CEO of In-Q-It, and Lee A. Ault, III, Chairman of In-Q-It’s Board of Trustees, in announcing the official launch of In-Q-It, Inc., a private, independent, non-profit corporation that will network and develop partnerships with information technology leaders in industry and academia to work on projects of mutual interest to both the CIA and the commercial marketplace.

“In many ways, the needs of the business and the CIA are quickly converging,” said Louie, the former Chief Creative Officer of Hasbro Interactive, Inc. “As these two entities look for ways to find answers to similar problems, In-Q-It will work to be the bridge that will allow our brightest minds to work on some of our nation’s toughest problems to foster creativity.”

DCI Tenet added: “The rapid and unprecedented pace of technological change and the evolution of our national security environment dictates a change in the way the intelligence community does business. In-Q-It answers this challenge by creating an innovative engine for the community to work together with individuals, industry and academia to explore new and unconventional approaches to common problems.”

“In-Q-It is revolutionary in that, although In-Q-It will work with CIA, it is not tied to the CIA’s organizational style and structure,” continued Louie. “Because In-Q-It is a private company, we will be able to work in Internet time and structure ourselves in a manner that will be familiar to many of the information technology companies we hope to attract as partners.”

The initial work program will target four areas: use of the Internet, information security, knowledge generation, and distributed architectures.

“The CIA is not the only entity looking for answers to these problems,” added Ault. “Our challenge will be to reach out to the information technology community and work with them to develop tools jointly to solve these challenges for the benefit of our country, our companies, and our citizens.”

In-Q-It’s efforts will be overseen by a Board of Trustees made up of leading members of the business and academic communities. In addition to Ault, former chairman and CEO of Telecredit, Inc., other members of the board include: Norman Augustine, former Chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin; John Seely Brown, Chief Scientist, Xerox Corporation and President, Xerox PARC Research Center; Michael Crow, Executive Vice Provost of Columbia University; Stephen Friedman, Senior Principal of Marsh & McLennan Capital, Inc., and former Chairman of Goldman Sachs and Co.; Paul Kaminski, President and CEO of Technovation, Inc., Senior Partner in Global Technology Partners, and former Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology; Jeong Kim, President of Carrier Network, part of the Lucent Technologies Corporation, and former founder of Yurie Systems; John McMahon, consultant to the Lockheed Martin Corporation and a former Deputy Director of Central Intelligence; Alex Mandl, Chairman and CEO of Teligent; and William Perry, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, the Michael and Barbara Berberian Professor at Stanford University with a joint appointment in the Department of Engineering-Economic Systems/Operations Research and the Institute for International Studies, and a former Secretary of Defense.

Jody R. Westby, former Senior Fellow and Director, Information Technology Studies at The Progress & Freedom Foundation and Director, Domestic Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is In-Q-It’s Chief Administrative Officer and Counsel.

In-Q-It is based in Washington, DC, and expects to open an office in Silicon Valley in November 1999.



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July 18, 2002

Systems Research & Development Receives New Funding From In-Q-Tel

Investment highlights NORA’s Value for Government Market

LAS VEGAS – NV Systems Research and Development, a pioneer and leader in real-time data warehousing, collusion detection and enterprise-wide connectivity, has secured additional funding from In-Q-Tel, Inc., a private not-for-profit corporation funded by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. In-Q-Tel invests in leading edge information technologies with applications to the government and commercial sectors.

“In-Q-Tel is building a portfolio of highly innovative and important new commercial technologies that can help address the U.S. Intelligence Community”s toughest challenges,” said Gilman Louie, In-Q-Tel’s president and CEO.

“We began working with SRD more than a year ago because we saw great potential value in their Non-Obvious Relationship Awareness(NORA�) technology. NORA automates and speeds the process of sorting and analyzing large amounts of data, and offers a unique capability to detect in real time potentially collusive relationships between people and/or organizations. This capability has tremendous value for private sector enterprises seeking to protect their assets, as well as for government.

NORA, the result of 19 years of research and development, is supported by SRD’s real-time data SI Warehousing technology. The SI (for Strategic Infrastructure) Warehousing technology collects data from hundreds or even thousands of computer systems—-within seconds—-compiling the results into one central warehouse. An essential part of the SI Warehousing platform is an integrated suite of data integrity processes that enable its match/merge engine to reconcile or eliminate duplicate records as fast as the data streams from source systems.

When non-obvious relationships are detected that match pre-defined “alert rules,” NORA� presents the findings via e-mail, pager or cell phone in a matter of seconds. Once alerted, authorized personnel make fact-based decisions to determine if an action or investigation should follow.

John Slitz, CEO of SRD, states that, “We’re delighted to have In-Q-Tel as a partner, investor, and a discriminating customer. This relationship validates the value of SRD’s technology within a wide range of government agencies that have many of the same internal challenges as our commercial customers.”

“Our relationship with In-Q-Tel is a logical step,” said Slitz. “NORA� is about asset protection, and protecting America’s national security is the ultimate application of asset protection. Needless to say, we are very excited to have invented a technology that contributes at this level.”

About In-Q-Tel, Inc.

In-Q-Tel is a private, independent, enterprise funded by the CIA. Launched in 1999, In-Q-Tel’s mission is to identify and invest in companies developing cutting-edge information technologies that serve United States national security interests. Working from an evolving strategic blueprint that defines the CIA’s critical information technology needs, In-Q-Tel engages with entrepreneurs, established companies, researchers and venture capitalists to deliver technologies that pay out in superior intelligence capabilities for the CIA and the larger Intelligence Community. Learn more at www.in-q-tel.org.

About Systems Research & Development

Systems Research and Development (SRD) develops, sells and supports strategic enterprise software solutions. Companies rely on SRD”s technology to achieve the highest level of data quality, integration, and accessibility for informed business decisions. SRD is the creator of the SI (Strategic Infrastructure) Warehouse, a real-time data-warehousing platform, and the Non-Obvious Relationship Awareness� or NORA�, a revolutionary fraud detection system that helps organizations detect the “insider” threat, reduce fraud, improve workplace safety and combat organized external theft.

For more information about SRD, please visit our web site at www.srdnet.com.

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Last update January 1, 2003 by The Catbird Seat

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