carlvogel, doni now that is interesting..Donald Rumsfeld
DEFENSE SECRETARY
Donald Rumsfeld
DEFENSE SECRETARY
Corporate Connections:
G.D. Searle/Pharmacia; General Instrument/Motorola; Gulfstream Aerospace; General
Dynamics; Tribune Company; Gilead Sciences; Amylin Pharmaceuticals; Sears, Roebuck
& Co.; Allstate; Kellogg; Asea Brown Boveri
Donald Rumsfeld has been a busy man. After serving as Gerald Ford’s defense secretary
in 1977, he joined the private sector as the CEO of G.D. Searle, a pharmaceutical
company that’s now a subsidiary of Pharmacia. He was also the CEO of General
Instrument, a telecommunications parts supplier that was eventually bought out by
Motorola. Lately, though, Rumsfeld has spent his time serving on the boards of several
companies: Gilead Sciences, a fledgling biotech company; newspaper giant Tribune
Company, which owns the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune; Amylin
Pharmaceuticals; Swiss firm Asea Borwn Boveri; and Fortune 500 behemoths, including
Kellogg, Sears and Allstate. As a director for Gulfstream Aerospace, his stock in the
company reportedly was valued at $11 million when the company was acquired by
defense contractor General Dynamics in 1999. But Rumsfeld has scrupulously avoided
any direct dealings with defense companies, either serving on boards or purchasing
stock, apparently to avoid the appearance of impropriety in case he was asked to fill a
defense department post again.
