Kissinger Associates
Kissinger Associates, Inc., founded in 1982, is a New York City-based international consulting firm and geopolitical fixing house, founded and run by Henry Kissinger. The firm helps clients to identify strategic partners and investment opportunities, and advises clients on government relations throughout the world.
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 (see list below).[1]
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 Bush nominated Lawrence Eagleburger as his Deputy Secretary of State. Congress required that Eagleburger disclose the names of 16 clients, some of which were his through his Kissinger Associates affiliation.[2] More recently, Kissinger himself was appointed chairman of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States by George W. Bush. 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.[3]
In 1999, Mack McLarty, joined Kissinger to open Kissinger McLarty Associates, the firm's office on Eighteenth and K streets in Washington, D.C. McLarty was White House Chief of Staff under Bill Clinton. Kissinger McLarty is a corporate member of the Council of the Americas, the New York-based business organization established by David Rockefeller in 1965.
Kissinger Associates is located in River House on Park Avenue at Fifty-first Street, in a building also occupied by Peter Peterson's Blackstone Group. It was established in July, 1982 after loans had been secured from Goldman Sachs and a consortium of three other banks. These loans were paid out in two years; by 1987 annual revenues had reached $5 million.[4]
corporate clients
- American Express - Director (Hungary, Japan)
- American International Group - Director, International Advisory Committee (Argentina, China, South Korea)
- Atlantic Richfield
- Chase Manhattan Bank (now JPMorgan Chase) - Chairman, International Advisory Committee
- Coca-Cola (Malaysia)
- Fiat
- Freeport-McMoRan - Director (Burma, Indonesia, Panama)
- Heinz (Ivory Coast, Turkey, Zimbabwe)
- Hollinger, Inc. - Director
- Merck
- Volvo
- Warburg [5]
