Lynn Forester de Rothschild

Lynn Forester de Rothschild
Born Lynn Forester
(1954-07-02) July 2, 1954
New Jersey
Nationality American
Alma mater Pomona College, Columbia Law School
Occupation CEO, E.L. Rothschild

Lynn Forester de Rothschild, Lady de Rothschild (born Lynn Forester; July 2, 1954) is the chief executive officer of E.L. Rothschild, a holding company she owns with her third husband, Sir Evelyn Robert de Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild family.[1] The company manages investments in The Economist Group, owner of The Economist magazine, Congressional Quarterly and the Economist Intelligence Unit, E.L. Rothschild LP, a leading independent wealth management firm in the United States, as well as real estate, agricultural and food interests.[2]

She publicly supports many politicians and is a known early Hillary Clinton supporter. She also rallies for a political movement called Inclusive Capitalism. She led the Conference of Inclusive Capitalism in London in 2014 and 2015 and founded the Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism.

By virtue of her marriage to a knight, she is known socially as Lady de Rothschild.

Life and career

Born in Bergen County, New Jersey, a suburb of greater New York City,[3] and raised in Oradell, New Jersey the only girl among three brothers,[4] Rothschild is the daughter of Annabelle (née Hewitt)[5] and John Kenneth Forester, president and owner of the General Aviation Company, now Meridian, in Teterboro, New Jersey. She studied at Pomona College and Columbia Law School, where she volunteered for the US Senate campaign of Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan.[3] She also studied international law at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. After leaving law school, she was an associate at the Simpson Thacher & Bartlett law firm for four years, before working for telecommunications billionaire John Kluge in the 1980s,[3] helping him acquire small companies that held local cellular licenses.[4]

Rothschild then invested in telecoms businesses in North America and Europe, in partnership with Motorola,[4] claiming in 2012 that by the late 1990s she was making a nine-figure salary.[6] She became Executive Vice President for Development at Metromedia Inc from 1984–1989. From 1989–1995, Rothschild was the majority shareholder, Chairman and CEO, of TPI Communications International, Inc., one of the largest providers of paging, wireless data and cellular telephone service in Latin America, owned with Motorola. While under her management, TPI tripled its size and per-customer revenues, and cash flow grew to three times the U.S. average. In addition, she expanded operations from Puerto Rico into Latin America. She sold her stake in TPI to Motorola in 1995 for a figure reportedly between $80 million and $100 million.[4]

In 1995, Rothschild founded FirstMark Communications Inc in the United States, a broadband wireless company. In 1997, she sold her US interests in order to focus on international opportunities. In 1998, she founded FirstMark Communications of Europe, with the mission of building a pan-European broadband Internet company. Having secured licenses in Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Finland, she built a 20,000 klm fiber network in 15 countries. The company was sold in June 2000 in a $1 billion financing, the largest private equity placement in the history of the European competitive telecommunications sector.

Rothschild currently serves on the Board of Directors of Estée Lauder Companies, The Economist Group,[3] Bronfman E.L. Rothschild LP and Christies International. She has also served on the Boards of Directors of Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation and General Instruments, Inc.

Personal life

Rothschild's first marriage to Alexander Hartley Platt, a doctor's son from New Jersey, took place at Brick Presbyterian Church on May 20, 1978.[7]

Her second husband was Andrew Stein, a New York politician and son of a multi-millionaire businessman, Jerry Finkelstein.[8] Stein is nine years older than Forester and was Manhattan Borough President at the time of their marriage. They wed on March 12, 1983[9] and had two children, Ben and Jake. They were divorced in 1993.[10]

Rothschild was introduced to Sir Evelyn de Rothschild by Henry Kissinger at the 1998 Bilderberg Group conference in Scotland,[11] and they married on November 30, 2000 in London, England, after Evelyn de Rothschild (almost 23 years older than her) left his wife and three children.[1] She is his third wife.[1] On the announcement of the marriage, the Rothschild couple was invited to spend their honeymoon at the White House by the Clintons.[12] The couple divides their time between homes in New York and London, the summer home on Martha’s Vineyard and the Rothschild family’s historic country estate in England.[3]

Politics

From 1993–1995, Rothschild served on President Bill Clinton's National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council. From 1998–2000, she served on the US Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Committee.

Rothschild has donated to all of the Clintons' federal races since 1992.[13] Although Rothschild was a major fund raiser for Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2008 presidential bid, she transferred her support to Republican candidate John McCain when Barack Obama beat Clinton, becoming a minor celebrity on cable television at the time for attacking Obama in a series of interviews.[3] On June 22, 2011, she hosted a fundraiser for Jon Huntsman, Jr.'s presidential campaign.[14]

She co-chaired/founded the day-long Conference of Inclusive Capitalism in London on May 27, 2014,[15] with the aim of adjusting the working of the capitalist system to work for more people and included an opening address by Prince Charles and guest speaker Bill Clinton. "Those weird billionaires who are turning into Marxists." Financial Review. The second conference also took place in London on June 26, 2015.

Rothschild is actively involved in policy and social issues, including micro-finance and women's rights. In 2006, she was appointed as a member of the UN Advisors Group on Inclusive Financial Services. She serves as Chairman of the Board for the American Patrons of the Tate Gallery, FAI, and the International Advisory Board of Columbia University School of Law. In addition, she serves as a Trustee of the ERANDA Foundation (a Rothschild family foundation), the Outward Bound Trust, the Alfred Herrhausen Society of International Dialogue of Deutsche Bank and the Global Commercial Microfinance Consortium Advisory Board of Deutsche Bank. She also sits on the board of the McCain Institute.[16] She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (USA), Chatham House (UK), the Institute for Strategic Studies (UK), the International Advisory Council of Asia House (UK), and the Foreign Policy Association (USA).

References

  1. 1 2 3 Valynseele, Joseph; Henri-Claude Mars (2004). Le Sang des Rothschild. Paris: L’Intermédiaire des Chercheurs et Curieux. p. 87. ISBN 2-908003-22-8.
  2. ↑ Grove, Lloyd (2007-10-05). "The World According to Lynn Forester de Rothschild." Upstart Business Journal. Retrieved 2007-11-05.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Spence, Alex and Matthew Karnitschnig (2015-08-05). "A Jersey Lady and The Economist: Lynn Forester de Rothschild won’t allow an ownership change without having something to say about it." Politico. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Hitchcock, Jane Stanton (2014-05-12). "Portrait of a Lady: Lynn Forester de Rothschild." Harper's Bazaar. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
  5. ↑ Obituary for Annabelle Hewitt Forester ‘39 (2009-02-15). Wooster Alumni & Friends. Retrieved 2013-08-24.
  6. ↑ "Lynn Forester de Rothschild on her campaign to rescue capitalism... and how we must stop the greed and corruption that threaten to destroy the American Dream". Daily Mail. July 28, 2012. Retrieved December 14, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Lynn Forester Becomes Bride Of A.H. Platt". New York Times. 1978-05-21. Retrieved 2008-09-18.(registration required)
  8. ↑ "Andrew J. Stein, Borough President, To Wed Lynn Forester Next Month". New York Times. 1983-01-16. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
  9. ↑ "Andrew J. Stein Marries Lawyer". New York Times. 1983-03-13. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
  10. ↑ Brozan, Nadine (1993-08-04). "Chronicle". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
  11. ↑ Gerard, Jasper. "Interview: Jasper Gerard meets Lynn de Rothschild" (2003-07-27). The Times. Retrieved 2008-09-23.
  12. ↑ Usherwood, Zoe (August 27, 2008). "I Love My Country Over My Party". Sky News HD. Archived from the original on May 6, 2013. Retrieved December 14, 2015.
  13. ↑ Keating, Dan (2015-11-19). "Here are the 146 donors who have supported all six of the Clintons’ federal races." The Washington Post. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
  14. ↑ Zeleny, Jeff (2011-06-22). "Huntsman Finishes Opening Day with Big Money Haul". The New York Times.
  15. ↑ Brooks-Pollock, Tom (July 24, 2014). "'Inclusive capitalism' conference ends in High Court battle between organisers." The Telegraph. Retrieved December 14, 2015.
  16. ↑ Williams, Vanessa (2015-05-02). "They were Hillary Clinton’s die-hard loyalists. Here’s where they are now." The Washington Post. Retrieved 2015-12-14.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, April 14, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.