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Sustainable Certification And The Flow Of Commodities And Currency
Sustainable Certification in new frontiers for flex-crops such as palm oil, or soy, requires first that an educational format convey the benefits of changing (agri)cultural practices in usually distant remote places of a landscape. It mat be necessary pass amendments to Constitutions (land use changes) and National Interpretations of International law; there are lawyers and layers of linguistics, adjusting the language of 'land reform' to gain acceptance by various strata of society. Furthermore, to advance change, projects that satisfy requirements of International funding mechanisms - particularly the carbon markets such as the Clean Development Fund, foster worldwide acceptance of deforestation – it just takes Political Initiative.
Sustainable Certification And The Flow Of Commodities And Currency
Wall Street mergers and the rising 'political will' of the captains of industry, along with the privatization of higher education (coalescing in structural parameters for selective science in determining public policy and environmental dispute resolution) were closely related through the late 1980's and 1990's. Broad collaborations were formed with the intent to change and therefore manage public policy. California's forest resources and energy economy fell prey to hostile takeovers. Two key figures, each with accomplishments of vast proportions, became interwoven, pioneering efforts to merge institutions of philanthropy and public policy. Dr. John M. Seidl - President of ENRON, MAXXAM, and Pacific Lumber (PL), and Chancellor Barry Munitz the VP of MAXXAM and PL, Getty Trust Officer and CEO, Chancellor California Board of Regents California State University system, and Director at Sallie Mae.
California Politics; MAXXAM, Pacific Lumber (Headwaters), ENRON, The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Bank of America, The Nature Conservancy, the Administration of California Governor Gray Davis, the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative (MLPAi), and the California UC Regents. Powerful schemes were being formed behind closed doors of institutions to influence government policies, backed by billions of dollars.
Green Chameleons
Politics, profits, and power brought together the best of the worst - ENRON, MAXXAM, Pacific Lumber, the Nature Conservancy, the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation; and Barry Munitz of the Getty Trust, Transition Team leader for California Governor Gray Davis, and various California Assemblymembers and Senators such as Senator Barry Keene.
On the North Coast of California, MAXXAM had already begun liquidating the Old Growth Redwood forests of Humboldt County, and the worker's pension fund. 1989 - Kaisertech's Chairman was replaced by Maxxam - Kaisertech was the parent company of Kaiser Aluminum. The news was a surprise within the industry. Kaisertech Ltd.'s new owner, Maxxam Inc., ousted James S. Pasman as chairman and chief executive. He was succeeded by John M. (Mick) Seidl, the president and chief operating officer of the Enron Corporation of Texas.
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/25/business/business-people-kaisertech-s-chairman-is-replaced-by-maxxam.html
Mr. John M. Seidl was, at this time, on the board of Board of Nature Conservancy (1987-1995: Vice Chair, 1991). In 1991 MAXXAM’s President, John Seidl, was selected to be a vice president of the Board of Directors of the Nature Conservancy. Seidl resigned from MAXXAM in 1992.
One may ask, how is this possible? Oh, It gets even better, as an epic story, a tragedy, for California and beyond.
Seidl began his civilian career in 1971 as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Program Systems in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. He moved to the Interior Department in 1973 and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary. Following his time in Washington, Seidl was a member of the faculty of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He left Stanford in the spring of 1978 to join the management of Natomas, an international energy company.
In San Francisco June 5, 2001 the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation announced the addition of Dr. John M. “Mick” Seidl as Director for the Foundation’s environmental programs. Seidl oversaw, directed and managed the grant administration of the Foundation’s environmental programs, which focus on biodiversity and the protection of the intact natural ecosystem.
Dr John reported directly to Lew Coleman, ex-president of Bank of America, the Foundation’s President. “With the Foundation’s unique approach to grant-making, we stand to make a significant impact through the smart protection, preservation and stewardship of the earth’s biodiversity.” J. Seidl
Each have all have been keynote speakers at the yearly 'Milken Institute Global Conference'. Lew Coleman 2003; Dr John Mick Seidl; Barry Munitz 2003; John Fischer (Sansome Partners) 2010;
As Panel Speakers in 2003, Barry and Lew shared their common aspirations. Lewis Coleman, president of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, states: “Social change is evolutionary rather than revolutionary. It is a gradual process whereby the time needed for change is often greater than the lifespan of the donor. Given the long-term horizon, it is difficult to measure social change and evaluate the efficacy of foundations. Philanthropic foundations must always ask themselves whether their institutional goals match those of their founders.”
Coleman was unique to the philanthropy industry for three reasons: (2003) “he is relatively new to his job running the Moore Foundation, having started as recently as 2000; the founders of his foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore, are alive and active members in society; and he brings private-sector banking experience to his job, having served in the banking industry for 37 years.”
“Barry Munitz, President and CEO of The J. Paul Getty Trust, agrees with Coleman that there are very few great philanthropic moments within recent decades, but added that Getty is one such rare example. When J. Paul Getty died in 1976, he left $1,000,000,000 to the trust. The man who dies rich dies disgraced, said Munitz, echoing the words of Andrew Carnegie.”
Munitz argued “that distinctions such as new philanthropy, venture philanthropy and social philanthropy are needless and all refer to the same general concept. Munitz would like to improve assessment in the nonprofit sector. Transparency and disclosure are crucial. According to Munitz, how the work is done is just as important as what work is done.”
“To Munitz, it′s more important to make effective grants than to cover a philanthropic area of interest. Philanthropic organizations should spend money on risk capital. They need to take more chances and test new ground. Two important issues to Munitz are reaching out early on key concerns and being honest. Some societal problems, he admits, cannot be solved, even collectively amongst foundations.”
http://www.milkeninstitute.org/events/conferences/global-conference/2003/panel-detail/286
“Philanthropy: Foundations at the Forefront of Social Change” Wednesday, April 2, 2003
(Michael Milken – Junk Bond King, Chairman, Milken Institute; Chairman, CaP CURE; Co-founder, Milken Family Foundation)
See end of article for a more on Michael Milken.
Here is where the plot thickens....
Under the guise of: “Partnerships To Ensure Environmental Sustainability” on Nov. 11, 2004 in San Jose, Costa Rica, news headlines ran with the lead story that the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation granted $8 million to The Nature Conservancy to protect forest areas in the Costa Rican Osa Peninsula. TNC with 8$ million dollars from the Moore Foundation sent Dr John to Costa Rica (with) the National Biodiversity Institute (Costa Rica). At the time, John M. “Mick” Seidl, was Chief Program Officer, Environment, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. During this time (2003-2006) Dr. John was also exploring bio-fuels, and would soon serve as President and CEO of Envirofuels LLC out of Texas (incorporated 2006).
As for MAXXAM, Hurwitz has designs on California as well as the rest of the world. It is far more than just a lumber company as it is involved is Real Estate, hotels, and construction.
http://www.jailhurwitz.com/sevensins.html
The MAXXAM company quit the timber business in 2008 when its former subsidiary, Humboldt Redwood (formerly Pacific Lumber Company), was taken over by Mendocino Redwood Company. Pacific Lumber Company had filed for bankruptcy a year earlier. At the time, Chairman and CEO Charles Hurwitz controlled more than 80% of MAXXAM. http://www.answers.com/topic/maxxam-inc (A missing page on the web)
Cooking The Books, Recipes From California’s Corporate Steak Holders
Under questioning by Federal investigators, “oil traders said that ENRON executives (John Seidl and others) had asked them to manipulate earnings by moving revenue from one year to another. Enron investigators had also learned that bank statements were doctored and that the account was opened with forged documents.”
Enron executives expressed faith in the head of the trading unit, Louis Borget. “I have complete confidence in your business judgment, and personal integrity,” Enron’s then President John 'Mick' Seidl wrote to Borget. “Please keep making us millions.” Two months later, at a meeting of Enron’s audit committee, Kenneth Lay weighed in. “I’ve decided we’re not going to discharge the people involved in this, because the company needs those earnings.”
ENRON in the 80's
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/enron/timeline80s.html
Cashing In On New Approaches To Influence And Governance
In late 1992, a group called the New Foundations Working Group was formed at Harvard University the oldest American college. The New Foundations Working Group was comprised of a consortium of institutional investors, corporate CEOs, senior managers, board members, and legal and economic experts on governance. John Seidl was a board member and valued keynote speaker. (Former Chairman Kaiser Aluminum, President MAXXAM, ENRON Corporations)
The charter of the group was to “train their assembled expertise on a search for new approaches to governance that would allow corporations and investors to capitalize on the new realities of the market to develop positive, constructive long-run relationships.” http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Communicating+smartly+to+your+shareholders.-a015717695
Dr John Seidl was also celebrated at the 2002 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Iomega Corporation: “Mr. Seidl, 62, had been a Director since 1999. He was also a director of the Denver, Colorado based St. Mary’s Land and Exploration Company (oil and gas).”
Smart Meters Are Likely A Descendant Of (Satellite) Oil Field Flow Meters
Dr John Seidl was President and CEO of CellNet Data Systems, a pioneering provider of remote meter reading networks to the U.S. utility industry. He was also the Chairman and co-founder of my HomeKey.com... “Schlumberger Ltd., an oil-service company, announced that it acquired CellNet Data Systems Inc., a market-leading provider of meter-reading and electronic commerce services, for a total of $235 million.” Schlumberger, which provides professional business services for water, gas, electricity and heat service providers, was already using CellNet, which filed for federal bankruptcy protection in February, for meter-reading and electronic-commerce purposes.
“CellNet Data Systems’ wireless data networks automatically monitor and control electric, gas and water meters. It can also monitor other devices such as parking meters, office equipment and vending machines. The CellNet system assists utilities with billing, providing customer account information on the Internet, and discovering power outages. It has teamed with BellSouth Wireless Data to provide it's telemetry services nationwide.” May 22 2000
http://www.allbusiness.com/finance/979738-1.html (Another missing page on the web, in fact all links going to allbusiness,com seem to have been removed)
Subsidiary MyHomeLink.com customized Internet sites for utilities. With more than two million meters in service at the time, CellNet had only two problems: Utilities’ slow adoption process and the slow progress of deregulation. Rural populations of Northern California absolutely rejected county-by-county implementation of wells regulated with smart-meters, and fought installations of PGE Smart Meters.
Further On Down The Road To Privatization Of Public Trust Resources With Barry Munitz
In the broader context of civil society, we move on from crashed Savings and Loan systems, and now go to 'For Profit Structures for University Services and Activities', Golden Parachutes for non-profits, and landscapes of corruption.
Throughout the 1990’s the merging of financial institutions and educational systems prospered. Many books appeared in the business and Education sections of national bestseller lists, bestsellers with titles like:
- “The Emerging Expanding Duties of Educational Institutions Chief Financial Officer”
- “First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently”
- “Roles and Responsibilities of the Chief Financial Officer (New Directions for Higher Education)”
- “Managing Higher Education as a Business”
- “A Vice President from the Business World Brings a New Bottom Line to Penn State”
- “An Analytical Framework for Thinking About the Use of For Profit Structures for University Services and Activities”
- “The Monster Under the Bed: How Business Is Mastering the Opportunity of Knowledge for Profit”
- “The New Society of Organizations”
- “The Global Learning Infrastructure Blueprint for a Digital Economy: Wealth Creation in an E-Business Era”
- “When Industries Change: Scenarios for Higher Education”
- “Reinventing the University: Object Lessons from Big Business”
California’s State University educational systems and Institutions of Philanthropy were thus headed by the same cultural despots of the corporate MAXXAM/ENRON regimes. Having substantially influenced politics within the continental borders of the US, and survived numerous national scandals, mergers, stock market fluctuations, lawsuits, and the collapse of savings and loan institutions, the officers of publicly traded corporations profiting on hostile takeovers and increased extraction rights to the commons, became stewards of culture for the new century.
Barry Munitz, Vice President of MAXXAM, went on to be the Chancellor of the Regents at CSU System, after causing problems there, he went on to the J. P. Getty Trust where after 8 years of corporate inappropriateness he got fired in 2006. He was also a director of Sallie Mae. His tenure at the Getty exposed the corporate governing structure of the largest Foundations of Philanthropy to scrutiny by state policy makers across the nation. It was found that the corporate governing structure of the largest Foundations of Philanthropy asserted the same undo corporate influence on politics, golden parachute packages, resource and land use decisions, and public perception of law, as do private and publicly traded corporations.
As soon as Barry Munitz joined the Getty Trust, he took to the road and the speaking circuit with his speech on the “The Role of Institutions in Leading Public Discourse”. The head of the Getty Trust, it’s chief executive officer would later Chair Gray Davis’ gubernatorial transition team in the name of facilitating public discourse and proposed a conspiracy between boards of institutions, agencies, etc., to change public perception and policy towards governance reform. It is succinctly illuminating.
“The fundamental change has to be a conspiracy between governing boards, the selectors of governing boards and the preparers of college and university presidents and museum directors and symphony directors….” Barry Munitz
Simultaneous to the selection of Dr. Munitz’ as Chancellor, then California State Senator Barry Keene introduced and later passed a Senate-Assembly Joint Concurrent resolution that would make the Chancellor of the CSU system the head of a yet-to-be-formed Center for the Resolution of Environmental Disputes. In March 1992 of Chancellor Munitz named Humboldt State University the Center for Resolution of Environmental Disputes. http://library.humboldt.edu/humco/holdings/archives/chronology.html
Within a few years California’s Governor-elect, Gray Davis, would make his first appointment after being elected governor. “In a hurried conference call with reporters less than one week after the election, he announced that former California State University Chancellor Barry Munitz would direct his transition team.”
Read: “The other résumé of Governor-elect Gray Davis' transition team leader, Barry Munitz”
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/12.03.98/munitz-9848.html
Perhaps the Administration of California Governor Gray Davis during the era of crises in energy and education deserves scrutiny. “If Gov. Davis' consorting with the energy companies is not enough, there are the conflicts of interest on the part of his spokespersons. Bruce Willison, whom Davis appointed to the California Electricity Oversight Board, has 12,052 shares of stock in Enron of Oregon. William Keese, chairperson of the California Energy Commission, had shares in Edison International, Texaco, Duke Energy, General Electric (produces turbines) and Exxon Mobil. Transactions were made on behalf of Keese with these companies plus Centrais Electricas Brasileiras, Tosco, Conoco, BP Amoco, International Power, Powergen, Petroleo Brasileiro, Total Fina Elf SA and Halliburton Co. Holdings (VP Dick Cheney's former company). Steve Maviglio, Davis' acting director of communications, owned Calpine Corporation stock. Davis had to fire 5 energy advisers who had conflict-of-interest problems: 4 of the 5 owned stock in Calpine and the fifth had stock in Enron. Vikram Budhraja, a Davis administration energy consultant, owned stock in Scottish Power, that signed a $1 billion contract with California. Budhraja was also a consultant to Oklahoma-based Williams Energy, which signed contracts with California. He also owned Edison stock.“
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2002/01/01/1131541.php
Passed by the Gray Davis Administration, AB 933, the Marine Life Protection Act would later become the privatized Marine Life Protection Act Initiative (MLPAi) and would be based on Selective Science as Policy. Any Science Advisory Team review was truncated by the MLPA Master Plan Framework, and the Petroleum Princess Catherine Reheis-Boyd, presided over every meeting of the MLPAi Blue Ribbon Task Force.
Read: “How Big Oil Captured California” by Dan Bacher July 31, 2015
http://theecoreport.com/how-big-oil-captured-california/#more-54293
“Big Oil spent an amazing $266 million influencing California politics from 2005 to 2014, according to an analysis of California Secretary of State data by StopFoolingCA.org, an online and social media public education and awareness campaign that highlights oil companies’ efforts to mislead and confuse Californians.”
This is a fascinating article and covers campaign contributions, California political recipients over the years, and is detailed enough in presentation to include the recurring offshore oil drilling controversy in State Waters of Southern California and Marine Protected Areas, offshore fracking, and the political power of WSPA - the Western States Petroleum Association, which contributed over $50 million of that amount.
Back to you Barry...
Just ten years ago, “after a yearlong investigation, the California Attorney General's office concluded that the J. Paul Getty Trust's former chief executive, Barry Munitz, and board of trustees misused organization funds on lavish travel, gifts and perks. State officials said they would not seek further penalties against the trust because they found no fraud and the misspent money was recouped when Munitz agreed to repay the Getty $250,000 and forgo more than $2 million in benefits when he was ousted in February 2006.”
Nevertheless, the attorney general took the unprecedented step of appointing an independent monitor, former state Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp, to make sure the $10-billion private foundation follows through on a long list of promised reforms.
It was a Saturday, 11 February 2006 - “J Paul Getty Trust President Resigns: Barry Munitz the president of art body The J Paul Getty Trust, which oversees the prestigious Getty Museum in Los Angeles - The Board of Trustees of the J. Paul Getty Trust announced today that Dr. Barry Munitz, President and CEO for the past eight years, has decided to resign, effective immediately.”
“Most of the people who come to the Getty Center don't realize that it houses the Getty's research, conservation and philanthropic programs. They mostly think of the Getty as a museum and they know the Getty is rich. The center itself is a testament to that wealth. With assets of more than nine billion dollars, the J. Paul Getty Trust is the fourth largest foundation in the country.”
“In December 2005 the Council on Foundations placed the Getty Trust on a 60-day probation because of concerns about "the sale of Getty property (at below market value to real estate magnate Eli Broad, a close friend of Munitz), the use of foundation assets for personal benefit, excessive travel and entertainment expenses, inappropriate compensation for the foundation's CEO, and potential self dealing. (The probation was lifted following Munitz's resignation in February.)”
In 2004, Dr. Munitz was named Chairman of California’s new P-16 Education Council, which is tasked with advising the State Superintendent of Public Education on the articulation and coordination of educational reform from pre-school through college.
By May of 2006 Munitz had returned to the California State University system as a Trustee Professor, while far away in Italy, “the Getty's former antiquities curator Marion True was on trial in Rome accused of conspiring to receive stolen goods.”
In California, there were those in the UC Regents who were astonished at Barry's return to the California State University system as a Trustee Professor after an absence of eight years. “The Trustee Professor program was established in November of 1984, and it is available to high-ranking executives holding tenure on one of the system campuses who were appointed before November 18, 1992 when the program was terminated. Ostensibly, the program was intended to allow the system to "profit from an executive's accumulated experience and insights."
“Most of the people who have served as Trustee Professors were campus presidents who wanted to stay involved with the system immediately following retirement. But the Irascible Professor knows of none who felt that they could reclaim the position after an extended absence from the system; and, it hardly seems that the Board of Trustees had this sort of golden parachute in mind when they established the program.” Irreverent Commentary on the State of Education in America Today; by Dr. Mark H. Shapiro
http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-05-03-06.htm
“Awarded an honorable doctorate, Dr. Munitz also was a member of the three Eli and Edye Broad Family Foundation Boards (education, health and art), a corporate director at Sallie Mae and chaired the Finance and Investment Committee for the Cotsen Family Foundation Board. He was Chairman of the American Council of Education Board, served as Vice Chair of the Congressional Cost Commission, and chaired the California Education Roundtable. Dr. Munitz gained experience in the business world when he left the University of Houston in 1982 to become a senior executive at MAXXAM, Inc. He remained active in a leadership position at the company, and served on its board of directors, until he joined the California State University in 1991 – the largest senior system of higher education in the United States. He completed terms as a Trustee of Princeton University, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Courtauld Institute.”
But not everyone could work alongside Barry. During Barry's tenure at the Getty Trust: "First John Walsh left, then Stephen Roundtree [executive vice president and chief operating officer], then Barbara Whitney. The last straw is Deborah Gribbon. I see this as part of a deliberate and deeply troubling purge of the best and the brightest people in the field."
http://www.artsjournal.com/man/2004/10/barry_munitz_smackdown.html (missing page on the web)
And The Art World Cringed
“Munitz met Jill Murphy while eating at the Jammin' Salmon, a Sacramento restaurant where she worked in the mid-1990s. Soon after, he hired her to work for him when he served as chancellor of the California State University system.”
“He brought her to the Getty shortly after he arrived, creating the position of chief of staff, a title more common in political circles. As the gatekeeper for Munitz, Murphy quickly became a powerful and feared figure among staff. In her early 30s and with no background in the arts, she was perceived to have the power to make or break people's careers at the Getty.”
Barry went on National tour and promoted a fundamental change: “I think the fundamental change has to be a conspiracy between governing boards, the selectors of governing boards and the preparers of college and university presidents and museum directors and symphony directors that treats the profession like a profession, acknowledges the legitimacy of trying to get better at it, acknowledges the reality of the conditions that prevail when you take it on, and acknowledges that the only way it continues to get stronger is that the way you get and teach the board members is to have some buffer between the politics and the fund raising, on the one hand, and the reality of a selection process, whether it's a screening mechanism the way the American Bar Association can be useful in Supreme Court selections or a different mechanism.”
“I think the fundamental change is to realize that leading the non-profit sector is a serious profession that will only get better if the board members who choose and have to protect those leaders understand what they're doing and that if you seriously then want them to engage in quality life-enhancing public discourse, they are going to get into trouble in the traditional sense of trouble and are going to need support and protection, not find themselves out so quickly on such a fragile wire that the slightest nudge brings you the next victim.” From: "The Role of Institutions in Leading Public Discourse" Barry Munitz December 17, 1998
Penn National Commission
http://www.upenn.edu/pnc/munitz.html
In 2001, Barry delivered the USC Commencement Ceremonies speech: (see his detailed bio)
http://news.usc.edu/5446/Commencement-01-Barry-Munitz-to-deliver-address-at-118th-graduation-ceremony/
Ousted from the Getty Trusted Barry returned to the CSU system.
“Overworked and Underpaid at Cal State LA: Why CSU Faculty Object to Re-hiring Barry Munitz Disgraced former President of the J. Paul Getty Trust....”
http://www.calfac.org/sites/main/files/file-attachments/060506_munitz_report.pdf
“Munitz was hired behind closed doors in February 2006 to teach and raise funds after resigning from the Getty amid an investigation into alleged misuse of charity funds. He is now being paid $163,776 almost double the top salary of $85,000 for a Cal State professor with 20 years of teaching experience.”
http://articles.latimes.com/2006/sep/03/local/me-meet3
By November 2006, LA newspapers ran almost continuous stories of corruption in the California State University system. And the Faculty Launched CSI:CSU Investigative Web Site in November 2006.
http://lists.csustan.edu/pipermail/facnet-l/2006-November/000056.html
In recent times; Barry Munitz “Chairs the Sierra Nevada College Board of Trustees. Dr. Munitz has served as the Chairman of United Financial Group. From August 2010 to February 2011, he served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Old Prospect Global Resources, Inc. Dr. Munitz served as Vice Chairman of the Congressional Cost Commission. He serves as a Director at KCET Public Television Station, Charter of Prospect Global Resources, Inc. since February 2011. Dr. Munitz served as a Director of SAFG Retirement Services, Inc. since joining in 1994 and Pillar Data Systems, Inc. He served as a Director at KB Home since 1999. Dr. Munitz served as a Member of the Board of Directors of LeapFrog Enterprises Inc. from July 2002 to March 31, 2005. He served as a Director at SLM Corporation from July 31, 1997 to April 30, 2014.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=599683&privcapId=301714
This last spring, Barry Munitz, was presented with an honorary 'Doctor of Humane Letters' degree at the education division ceremony. “Munitz is the founding chair of California’s P-16 Council, a group of education, business, and community leaders charged with developing strategies to improve education for preschool through college. Munitz also chairs the President’s Advisory Committee of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and led the board of trustees of Sierra Nevada College. He is chancellor emeritus of the 23-campus California State University, the country’s largest senior system of public higher education. Munitz was also chancellor of the University of Houston, and academic vice president of the University of Illinois system.” (Graduate School of Education and Psychology Celebrates 2015 Graduation)
http://newsroom.pepperdine.edu/gsep/2015/05/graduate-school-education-and-psychology-celebrates-2015-graduation
Of course today, privatization of higher education has resulted in student revolts, and remains a hot topic on campus and in the legislature.
“The Problem is Privatization, and it Can be Reversed” September 29, 2011
by Stanton A. Glantz, Professor of Medicine, UCSF
http://utotherescue.blogspot.com/2011/09/problem-is-privatization-and-it-can-be.html
“UC (and CSU’s) ongoing financial problems are not a result of the fact that alumni are not generous, they are the result of the failed policy of privatization that UC has been following since shortly after Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor. Schwarzenegger pursued an aggressive policy of privatization designed to shift the cost of higher education away from taxpayers on to students and their families.”
“School Privatization Is A Hoax, Reformers Aim To Destroy Public Schools” 2013 by Diane Ravitch (8 page Excerpt) from “Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools.”
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/15/diane_ravitch_school_privatization_is_a_hoax_reformers_aim_to_destroy_public_schools/
Barry Muitz is currently a founding partner of Rocky Mountain Resource Holdings (oil, gas, agriculture).
http://rmrholdings.com/team/
What's the story on Michael Milken?
“Today the public has only a dim recollection of what sent Milken to federal prison. Milken's defenders portray him as a financial genius who changed the country's capital markets for the better, but was caught up in the hysteria of the 1980s and unfairly scapegoated as a criminal. His critics more plausibly describe him as a crook, a man who used his financial know-how to fraudulently enrich himself and his associates, and whose machinations undermined the integrity of the market.”
“A quick refresher: At the investment firm Drexel Burnham Lambert, Milken virtually reinvented junk bonds; securities that are considered speculative and below investment grade. Before Milken, most junk bonds were fallen angels, bonds for companies that were once investment grade but had fallen on hard times. Milken had two key insights. First, a diversified portfolio of junk bonds could have extremely impressive returns since the high interest paid by the successful firms more than offset the losses resulting from defaults. Moreover, such bonds could be a perfect source of capital for risky start-ups. During the 1970s and 1980s, Milken ran with these insights, personally creating an enormous new market for high-yield securities. This is the achievement for which his defenders hail him as a financial genius. But Milken did not stop there. He and his accomplices allegedly conspired to engage in insider trading, arrange illegal take-overs, and defraud their customers. It was this activity that helped make him a billionaire, and sent him to prison.”
“Milken became a double-edged symbol of his time, an embodiment first of the "booming '80s" and then of the "decade of greed." Milken's x-shaped desk at the center of Drexel's Beverly Hills office became an object of legend, around which multimillion-dollar deals were negotiated by the hour. The junk bond market kept expanding, and with it Milken's net worth: In 1987 alone, he earned a whopping $550 million. Milken's junk bonds helped fuel new ventures such as MCI and Turner Broadcasting, but also helped destroy established corporations by funding corporate raiders. And with the advent of deregulation, junk bonds became entwined in the savings and loan mess. Ultimately, Milken was the target of a 98-count criminal indictment and a massive civil case filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).”
http://prospect.org/article/resurrection-michael-milken
Throughout this article it can be seen that the power and influence of Global Initiatives in re-structuring the social fabric of a society, had it's beginnings in the culture of corporate hostile takeovers. It's a business, and depends upon investment in new society infrastructures of production, and markets. Somewhere along the way, and as an industry response to market impacts by public outcry over deforestation issues of the 80's and 90's, there cropped up a new industry: the Certification Industry; and later, the certified offset certificate program (completely separate from the physical supply chain and cost effective in that it skips chain-of-custody assessment but promises increased market support for sustainable practices).
The offset certificate program for palm oil is a private fund, but parallel in purpose to the RSPO function (whom it works in support of) and is owned by one Europe's largest importers of palm oil. Brilliant. It's called GreenPalm and GreenPalm Brokerage – both are trading names of Book Claim Limited, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of AarhusKarlshamn UK Ltd. King George Dock Hull HU9 5PX U.K. AarhusKarlshamn UK Ltd (AAK) began life as Anglia Oils in 1982. The business was established in the UK as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Danish company Aarhus Olie, a world leader in specialty fats....
AAK is a food service company, bakery supplies, oils, etc.
GreenPalm exclusively operates the Book and Claim supply chain option for the RSPO since 2008. The certificate offsetting system allows product manufacturers who use palm, palm kernel oil or any palm based derivative/fraction in their products, to offset that physical oil by purchasing the equivalent amount of certificates, and products carry an attractive logo.
Indigenous communities continue to lose land, deforestation continues, CDM (Clean Development Mechanisms) foster green carbon trading schemes and another plantation earns carbon credits. Agroecology faces a model of 'scaling up' of the smallholder due to the lower production rates per acre of export crops. That very Initiative in itself, will allow expansion of toxic inputs to current small farmer holdings (certified by RSPO) to increase yields and change the very landscape dynamics of Agroecology. Industry's argument is that it offers protection from expanding into forests and yet will still be able to meet demand for global food production by 2050. (Once again that doesn't mean forests won't be encroached upon, or that habitat won't be destroyed, or that cultures won't be displaced, and stressed species pushed nearer to extinction.)
Latin America has been the experimental playground of global initiatives for 50 years.
There is an infinite growth paradigm here, the cause of environmental impacts, fractal in nature – roads are the beginning, for drilling, for mining, the logging, and it's only practical as communities of settlers arrive in new lands (populations of workers and landless populations). The process of obtaining land title, or legal status may precede land use change or come as a result. Initiatives for education are used to advance change, as is deployment of funding to accurately determine geographic boundaries precedes loans and credit for fertilizers and pesticides. All this on promised increased yields for the sustainable market economy will follow. Another 'Green Revolution' and riddled with controversy. The first two 'green revolutions' failed miserably, although export yields were increased briefly.
“With the Infinite Growth Monetary Paradigm Mother Earth cannot afford to repay One Point Four Quadrillion Dollars in debt through growth and she will not.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-p1OMuULAk
Soon I intend to publish an article on Agro-ecological principles and the progression in funding linguistics of Initiatives, now directing the conversation, from small farmer to small holder.
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Tomas DiFiore
Wall Street mergers and the rising 'political will' of the captains of industry, along with the privatization of higher education (coalescing in structural parameters for selective science in determining public policy and environmental dispute resolution) were closely related through the late 1980's and 1990's. Broad collaborations were formed with the intent to change and therefore manage public policy. California's forest resources and energy economy fell prey to hostile takeovers. Two key figures, each with accomplishments of vast proportions, became interwoven, pioneering efforts to merge institutions of philanthropy and public policy. Dr. John M. Seidl - President of ENRON, MAXXAM, and Pacific Lumber (PL), and Chancellor Barry Munitz the VP of MAXXAM and PL, Getty Trust Officer and CEO, Chancellor California Board of Regents California State University system, and Director at Sallie Mae.
California Politics; MAXXAM, Pacific Lumber (Headwaters), ENRON, The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Bank of America, The Nature Conservancy, the Administration of California Governor Gray Davis, the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative (MLPAi), and the California UC Regents. Powerful schemes were being formed behind closed doors of institutions to influence government policies, backed by billions of dollars.
Green Chameleons
Politics, profits, and power brought together the best of the worst - ENRON, MAXXAM, Pacific Lumber, the Nature Conservancy, the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation; and Barry Munitz of the Getty Trust, Transition Team leader for California Governor Gray Davis, and various California Assemblymembers and Senators such as Senator Barry Keene.
On the North Coast of California, MAXXAM had already begun liquidating the Old Growth Redwood forests of Humboldt County, and the worker's pension fund. 1989 - Kaisertech's Chairman was replaced by Maxxam - Kaisertech was the parent company of Kaiser Aluminum. The news was a surprise within the industry. Kaisertech Ltd.'s new owner, Maxxam Inc., ousted James S. Pasman as chairman and chief executive. He was succeeded by John M. (Mick) Seidl, the president and chief operating officer of the Enron Corporation of Texas.
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/25/business/business-people-kaisertech-s-chairman-is-replaced-by-maxxam.html
Mr. John M. Seidl was, at this time, on the board of Board of Nature Conservancy (1987-1995: Vice Chair, 1991). In 1991 MAXXAM’s President, John Seidl, was selected to be a vice president of the Board of Directors of the Nature Conservancy. Seidl resigned from MAXXAM in 1992.
One may ask, how is this possible? Oh, It gets even better, as an epic story, a tragedy, for California and beyond.
Seidl began his civilian career in 1971 as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Program Systems in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. He moved to the Interior Department in 1973 and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary. Following his time in Washington, Seidl was a member of the faculty of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He left Stanford in the spring of 1978 to join the management of Natomas, an international energy company.
In San Francisco June 5, 2001 the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation announced the addition of Dr. John M. “Mick” Seidl as Director for the Foundation’s environmental programs. Seidl oversaw, directed and managed the grant administration of the Foundation’s environmental programs, which focus on biodiversity and the protection of the intact natural ecosystem.
Dr John reported directly to Lew Coleman, ex-president of Bank of America, the Foundation’s President. “With the Foundation’s unique approach to grant-making, we stand to make a significant impact through the smart protection, preservation and stewardship of the earth’s biodiversity.” J. Seidl
Each have all have been keynote speakers at the yearly 'Milken Institute Global Conference'. Lew Coleman 2003; Dr John Mick Seidl; Barry Munitz 2003; John Fischer (Sansome Partners) 2010;
As Panel Speakers in 2003, Barry and Lew shared their common aspirations. Lewis Coleman, president of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, states: “Social change is evolutionary rather than revolutionary. It is a gradual process whereby the time needed for change is often greater than the lifespan of the donor. Given the long-term horizon, it is difficult to measure social change and evaluate the efficacy of foundations. Philanthropic foundations must always ask themselves whether their institutional goals match those of their founders.”
Coleman was unique to the philanthropy industry for three reasons: (2003) “he is relatively new to his job running the Moore Foundation, having started as recently as 2000; the founders of his foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore, are alive and active members in society; and he brings private-sector banking experience to his job, having served in the banking industry for 37 years.”
“Barry Munitz, President and CEO of The J. Paul Getty Trust, agrees with Coleman that there are very few great philanthropic moments within recent decades, but added that Getty is one such rare example. When J. Paul Getty died in 1976, he left $1,000,000,000 to the trust. The man who dies rich dies disgraced, said Munitz, echoing the words of Andrew Carnegie.”
Munitz argued “that distinctions such as new philanthropy, venture philanthropy and social philanthropy are needless and all refer to the same general concept. Munitz would like to improve assessment in the nonprofit sector. Transparency and disclosure are crucial. According to Munitz, how the work is done is just as important as what work is done.”
“To Munitz, it′s more important to make effective grants than to cover a philanthropic area of interest. Philanthropic organizations should spend money on risk capital. They need to take more chances and test new ground. Two important issues to Munitz are reaching out early on key concerns and being honest. Some societal problems, he admits, cannot be solved, even collectively amongst foundations.”
http://www.milkeninstitute.org/events/conferences/global-conference/2003/panel-detail/286
“Philanthropy: Foundations at the Forefront of Social Change” Wednesday, April 2, 2003
(Michael Milken – Junk Bond King, Chairman, Milken Institute; Chairman, CaP CURE; Co-founder, Milken Family Foundation)
See end of article for a more on Michael Milken.
Here is where the plot thickens....
Under the guise of: “Partnerships To Ensure Environmental Sustainability” on Nov. 11, 2004 in San Jose, Costa Rica, news headlines ran with the lead story that the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation granted $8 million to The Nature Conservancy to protect forest areas in the Costa Rican Osa Peninsula. TNC with 8$ million dollars from the Moore Foundation sent Dr John to Costa Rica (with) the National Biodiversity Institute (Costa Rica). At the time, John M. “Mick” Seidl, was Chief Program Officer, Environment, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. During this time (2003-2006) Dr. John was also exploring bio-fuels, and would soon serve as President and CEO of Envirofuels LLC out of Texas (incorporated 2006).
As for MAXXAM, Hurwitz has designs on California as well as the rest of the world. It is far more than just a lumber company as it is involved is Real Estate, hotels, and construction.
http://www.jailhurwitz.com/sevensins.html
The MAXXAM company quit the timber business in 2008 when its former subsidiary, Humboldt Redwood (formerly Pacific Lumber Company), was taken over by Mendocino Redwood Company. Pacific Lumber Company had filed for bankruptcy a year earlier. At the time, Chairman and CEO Charles Hurwitz controlled more than 80% of MAXXAM. http://www.answers.com/topic/maxxam-inc (A missing page on the web)
Cooking The Books, Recipes From California’s Corporate Steak Holders
Under questioning by Federal investigators, “oil traders said that ENRON executives (John Seidl and others) had asked them to manipulate earnings by moving revenue from one year to another. Enron investigators had also learned that bank statements were doctored and that the account was opened with forged documents.”
Enron executives expressed faith in the head of the trading unit, Louis Borget. “I have complete confidence in your business judgment, and personal integrity,” Enron’s then President John 'Mick' Seidl wrote to Borget. “Please keep making us millions.” Two months later, at a meeting of Enron’s audit committee, Kenneth Lay weighed in. “I’ve decided we’re not going to discharge the people involved in this, because the company needs those earnings.”
ENRON in the 80's
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/enron/timeline80s.html
Cashing In On New Approaches To Influence And Governance
In late 1992, a group called the New Foundations Working Group was formed at Harvard University the oldest American college. The New Foundations Working Group was comprised of a consortium of institutional investors, corporate CEOs, senior managers, board members, and legal and economic experts on governance. John Seidl was a board member and valued keynote speaker. (Former Chairman Kaiser Aluminum, President MAXXAM, ENRON Corporations)
The charter of the group was to “train their assembled expertise on a search for new approaches to governance that would allow corporations and investors to capitalize on the new realities of the market to develop positive, constructive long-run relationships.” http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Communicating+smartly+to+your+shareholders.-a015717695
Dr John Seidl was also celebrated at the 2002 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Iomega Corporation: “Mr. Seidl, 62, had been a Director since 1999. He was also a director of the Denver, Colorado based St. Mary’s Land and Exploration Company (oil and gas).”
Smart Meters Are Likely A Descendant Of (Satellite) Oil Field Flow Meters
Dr John Seidl was President and CEO of CellNet Data Systems, a pioneering provider of remote meter reading networks to the U.S. utility industry. He was also the Chairman and co-founder of my HomeKey.com... “Schlumberger Ltd., an oil-service company, announced that it acquired CellNet Data Systems Inc., a market-leading provider of meter-reading and electronic commerce services, for a total of $235 million.” Schlumberger, which provides professional business services for water, gas, electricity and heat service providers, was already using CellNet, which filed for federal bankruptcy protection in February, for meter-reading and electronic-commerce purposes.
“CellNet Data Systems’ wireless data networks automatically monitor and control electric, gas and water meters. It can also monitor other devices such as parking meters, office equipment and vending machines. The CellNet system assists utilities with billing, providing customer account information on the Internet, and discovering power outages. It has teamed with BellSouth Wireless Data to provide it's telemetry services nationwide.” May 22 2000
http://www.allbusiness.com/finance/979738-1.html (Another missing page on the web, in fact all links going to allbusiness,com seem to have been removed)
Subsidiary MyHomeLink.com customized Internet sites for utilities. With more than two million meters in service at the time, CellNet had only two problems: Utilities’ slow adoption process and the slow progress of deregulation. Rural populations of Northern California absolutely rejected county-by-county implementation of wells regulated with smart-meters, and fought installations of PGE Smart Meters.
Further On Down The Road To Privatization Of Public Trust Resources With Barry Munitz
In the broader context of civil society, we move on from crashed Savings and Loan systems, and now go to 'For Profit Structures for University Services and Activities', Golden Parachutes for non-profits, and landscapes of corruption.
Throughout the 1990’s the merging of financial institutions and educational systems prospered. Many books appeared in the business and Education sections of national bestseller lists, bestsellers with titles like:
- “The Emerging Expanding Duties of Educational Institutions Chief Financial Officer”
- “First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently”
- “Roles and Responsibilities of the Chief Financial Officer (New Directions for Higher Education)”
- “Managing Higher Education as a Business”
- “A Vice President from the Business World Brings a New Bottom Line to Penn State”
- “An Analytical Framework for Thinking About the Use of For Profit Structures for University Services and Activities”
- “The Monster Under the Bed: How Business Is Mastering the Opportunity of Knowledge for Profit”
- “The New Society of Organizations”
- “The Global Learning Infrastructure Blueprint for a Digital Economy: Wealth Creation in an E-Business Era”
- “When Industries Change: Scenarios for Higher Education”
- “Reinventing the University: Object Lessons from Big Business”
California’s State University educational systems and Institutions of Philanthropy were thus headed by the same cultural despots of the corporate MAXXAM/ENRON regimes. Having substantially influenced politics within the continental borders of the US, and survived numerous national scandals, mergers, stock market fluctuations, lawsuits, and the collapse of savings and loan institutions, the officers of publicly traded corporations profiting on hostile takeovers and increased extraction rights to the commons, became stewards of culture for the new century.
Barry Munitz, Vice President of MAXXAM, went on to be the Chancellor of the Regents at CSU System, after causing problems there, he went on to the J. P. Getty Trust where after 8 years of corporate inappropriateness he got fired in 2006. He was also a director of Sallie Mae. His tenure at the Getty exposed the corporate governing structure of the largest Foundations of Philanthropy to scrutiny by state policy makers across the nation. It was found that the corporate governing structure of the largest Foundations of Philanthropy asserted the same undo corporate influence on politics, golden parachute packages, resource and land use decisions, and public perception of law, as do private and publicly traded corporations.
As soon as Barry Munitz joined the Getty Trust, he took to the road and the speaking circuit with his speech on the “The Role of Institutions in Leading Public Discourse”. The head of the Getty Trust, it’s chief executive officer would later Chair Gray Davis’ gubernatorial transition team in the name of facilitating public discourse and proposed a conspiracy between boards of institutions, agencies, etc., to change public perception and policy towards governance reform. It is succinctly illuminating.
“The fundamental change has to be a conspiracy between governing boards, the selectors of governing boards and the preparers of college and university presidents and museum directors and symphony directors….” Barry Munitz
Simultaneous to the selection of Dr. Munitz’ as Chancellor, then California State Senator Barry Keene introduced and later passed a Senate-Assembly Joint Concurrent resolution that would make the Chancellor of the CSU system the head of a yet-to-be-formed Center for the Resolution of Environmental Disputes. In March 1992 of Chancellor Munitz named Humboldt State University the Center for Resolution of Environmental Disputes. http://library.humboldt.edu/humco/holdings/archives/chronology.html
Within a few years California’s Governor-elect, Gray Davis, would make his first appointment after being elected governor. “In a hurried conference call with reporters less than one week after the election, he announced that former California State University Chancellor Barry Munitz would direct his transition team.”
Read: “The other résumé of Governor-elect Gray Davis' transition team leader, Barry Munitz”
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/12.03.98/munitz-9848.html
Perhaps the Administration of California Governor Gray Davis during the era of crises in energy and education deserves scrutiny. “If Gov. Davis' consorting with the energy companies is not enough, there are the conflicts of interest on the part of his spokespersons. Bruce Willison, whom Davis appointed to the California Electricity Oversight Board, has 12,052 shares of stock in Enron of Oregon. William Keese, chairperson of the California Energy Commission, had shares in Edison International, Texaco, Duke Energy, General Electric (produces turbines) and Exxon Mobil. Transactions were made on behalf of Keese with these companies plus Centrais Electricas Brasileiras, Tosco, Conoco, BP Amoco, International Power, Powergen, Petroleo Brasileiro, Total Fina Elf SA and Halliburton Co. Holdings (VP Dick Cheney's former company). Steve Maviglio, Davis' acting director of communications, owned Calpine Corporation stock. Davis had to fire 5 energy advisers who had conflict-of-interest problems: 4 of the 5 owned stock in Calpine and the fifth had stock in Enron. Vikram Budhraja, a Davis administration energy consultant, owned stock in Scottish Power, that signed a $1 billion contract with California. Budhraja was also a consultant to Oklahoma-based Williams Energy, which signed contracts with California. He also owned Edison stock.“
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2002/01/01/1131541.php
Passed by the Gray Davis Administration, AB 933, the Marine Life Protection Act would later become the privatized Marine Life Protection Act Initiative (MLPAi) and would be based on Selective Science as Policy. Any Science Advisory Team review was truncated by the MLPA Master Plan Framework, and the Petroleum Princess Catherine Reheis-Boyd, presided over every meeting of the MLPAi Blue Ribbon Task Force.
Read: “How Big Oil Captured California” by Dan Bacher July 31, 2015
http://theecoreport.com/how-big-oil-captured-california/#more-54293
“Big Oil spent an amazing $266 million influencing California politics from 2005 to 2014, according to an analysis of California Secretary of State data by StopFoolingCA.org, an online and social media public education and awareness campaign that highlights oil companies’ efforts to mislead and confuse Californians.”
This is a fascinating article and covers campaign contributions, California political recipients over the years, and is detailed enough in presentation to include the recurring offshore oil drilling controversy in State Waters of Southern California and Marine Protected Areas, offshore fracking, and the political power of WSPA - the Western States Petroleum Association, which contributed over $50 million of that amount.
Back to you Barry...
Just ten years ago, “after a yearlong investigation, the California Attorney General's office concluded that the J. Paul Getty Trust's former chief executive, Barry Munitz, and board of trustees misused organization funds on lavish travel, gifts and perks. State officials said they would not seek further penalties against the trust because they found no fraud and the misspent money was recouped when Munitz agreed to repay the Getty $250,000 and forgo more than $2 million in benefits when he was ousted in February 2006.”
Nevertheless, the attorney general took the unprecedented step of appointing an independent monitor, former state Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp, to make sure the $10-billion private foundation follows through on a long list of promised reforms.
It was a Saturday, 11 February 2006 - “J Paul Getty Trust President Resigns: Barry Munitz the president of art body The J Paul Getty Trust, which oversees the prestigious Getty Museum in Los Angeles - The Board of Trustees of the J. Paul Getty Trust announced today that Dr. Barry Munitz, President and CEO for the past eight years, has decided to resign, effective immediately.”
“Most of the people who come to the Getty Center don't realize that it houses the Getty's research, conservation and philanthropic programs. They mostly think of the Getty as a museum and they know the Getty is rich. The center itself is a testament to that wealth. With assets of more than nine billion dollars, the J. Paul Getty Trust is the fourth largest foundation in the country.”
“In December 2005 the Council on Foundations placed the Getty Trust on a 60-day probation because of concerns about "the sale of Getty property (at below market value to real estate magnate Eli Broad, a close friend of Munitz), the use of foundation assets for personal benefit, excessive travel and entertainment expenses, inappropriate compensation for the foundation's CEO, and potential self dealing. (The probation was lifted following Munitz's resignation in February.)”
In 2004, Dr. Munitz was named Chairman of California’s new P-16 Education Council, which is tasked with advising the State Superintendent of Public Education on the articulation and coordination of educational reform from pre-school through college.
By May of 2006 Munitz had returned to the California State University system as a Trustee Professor, while far away in Italy, “the Getty's former antiquities curator Marion True was on trial in Rome accused of conspiring to receive stolen goods.”
In California, there were those in the UC Regents who were astonished at Barry's return to the California State University system as a Trustee Professor after an absence of eight years. “The Trustee Professor program was established in November of 1984, and it is available to high-ranking executives holding tenure on one of the system campuses who were appointed before November 18, 1992 when the program was terminated. Ostensibly, the program was intended to allow the system to "profit from an executive's accumulated experience and insights."
“Most of the people who have served as Trustee Professors were campus presidents who wanted to stay involved with the system immediately following retirement. But the Irascible Professor knows of none who felt that they could reclaim the position after an extended absence from the system; and, it hardly seems that the Board of Trustees had this sort of golden parachute in mind when they established the program.” Irreverent Commentary on the State of Education in America Today; by Dr. Mark H. Shapiro
http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-05-03-06.htm
“Awarded an honorable doctorate, Dr. Munitz also was a member of the three Eli and Edye Broad Family Foundation Boards (education, health and art), a corporate director at Sallie Mae and chaired the Finance and Investment Committee for the Cotsen Family Foundation Board. He was Chairman of the American Council of Education Board, served as Vice Chair of the Congressional Cost Commission, and chaired the California Education Roundtable. Dr. Munitz gained experience in the business world when he left the University of Houston in 1982 to become a senior executive at MAXXAM, Inc. He remained active in a leadership position at the company, and served on its board of directors, until he joined the California State University in 1991 – the largest senior system of higher education in the United States. He completed terms as a Trustee of Princeton University, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Courtauld Institute.”
But not everyone could work alongside Barry. During Barry's tenure at the Getty Trust: "First John Walsh left, then Stephen Roundtree [executive vice president and chief operating officer], then Barbara Whitney. The last straw is Deborah Gribbon. I see this as part of a deliberate and deeply troubling purge of the best and the brightest people in the field."
http://www.artsjournal.com/man/2004/10/barry_munitz_smackdown.html (missing page on the web)
And The Art World Cringed
“Munitz met Jill Murphy while eating at the Jammin' Salmon, a Sacramento restaurant where she worked in the mid-1990s. Soon after, he hired her to work for him when he served as chancellor of the California State University system.”
“He brought her to the Getty shortly after he arrived, creating the position of chief of staff, a title more common in political circles. As the gatekeeper for Munitz, Murphy quickly became a powerful and feared figure among staff. In her early 30s and with no background in the arts, she was perceived to have the power to make or break people's careers at the Getty.”
Barry went on National tour and promoted a fundamental change: “I think the fundamental change has to be a conspiracy between governing boards, the selectors of governing boards and the preparers of college and university presidents and museum directors and symphony directors that treats the profession like a profession, acknowledges the legitimacy of trying to get better at it, acknowledges the reality of the conditions that prevail when you take it on, and acknowledges that the only way it continues to get stronger is that the way you get and teach the board members is to have some buffer between the politics and the fund raising, on the one hand, and the reality of a selection process, whether it's a screening mechanism the way the American Bar Association can be useful in Supreme Court selections or a different mechanism.”
“I think the fundamental change is to realize that leading the non-profit sector is a serious profession that will only get better if the board members who choose and have to protect those leaders understand what they're doing and that if you seriously then want them to engage in quality life-enhancing public discourse, they are going to get into trouble in the traditional sense of trouble and are going to need support and protection, not find themselves out so quickly on such a fragile wire that the slightest nudge brings you the next victim.” From: "The Role of Institutions in Leading Public Discourse" Barry Munitz December 17, 1998
Penn National Commission
http://www.upenn.edu/pnc/munitz.html
In 2001, Barry delivered the USC Commencement Ceremonies speech: (see his detailed bio)
http://news.usc.edu/5446/Commencement-01-Barry-Munitz-to-deliver-address-at-118th-graduation-ceremony/
Ousted from the Getty Trusted Barry returned to the CSU system.
“Overworked and Underpaid at Cal State LA: Why CSU Faculty Object to Re-hiring Barry Munitz Disgraced former President of the J. Paul Getty Trust....”
http://www.calfac.org/sites/main/files/file-attachments/060506_munitz_report.pdf
“Munitz was hired behind closed doors in February 2006 to teach and raise funds after resigning from the Getty amid an investigation into alleged misuse of charity funds. He is now being paid $163,776 almost double the top salary of $85,000 for a Cal State professor with 20 years of teaching experience.”
http://articles.latimes.com/2006/sep/03/local/me-meet3
By November 2006, LA newspapers ran almost continuous stories of corruption in the California State University system. And the Faculty Launched CSI:CSU Investigative Web Site in November 2006.
http://lists.csustan.edu/pipermail/facnet-l/2006-November/000056.html
In recent times; Barry Munitz “Chairs the Sierra Nevada College Board of Trustees. Dr. Munitz has served as the Chairman of United Financial Group. From August 2010 to February 2011, he served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Old Prospect Global Resources, Inc. Dr. Munitz served as Vice Chairman of the Congressional Cost Commission. He serves as a Director at KCET Public Television Station, Charter of Prospect Global Resources, Inc. since February 2011. Dr. Munitz served as a Director of SAFG Retirement Services, Inc. since joining in 1994 and Pillar Data Systems, Inc. He served as a Director at KB Home since 1999. Dr. Munitz served as a Member of the Board of Directors of LeapFrog Enterprises Inc. from July 2002 to March 31, 2005. He served as a Director at SLM Corporation from July 31, 1997 to April 30, 2014.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=599683&privcapId=301714
This last spring, Barry Munitz, was presented with an honorary 'Doctor of Humane Letters' degree at the education division ceremony. “Munitz is the founding chair of California’s P-16 Council, a group of education, business, and community leaders charged with developing strategies to improve education for preschool through college. Munitz also chairs the President’s Advisory Committee of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and led the board of trustees of Sierra Nevada College. He is chancellor emeritus of the 23-campus California State University, the country’s largest senior system of public higher education. Munitz was also chancellor of the University of Houston, and academic vice president of the University of Illinois system.” (Graduate School of Education and Psychology Celebrates 2015 Graduation)
http://newsroom.pepperdine.edu/gsep/2015/05/graduate-school-education-and-psychology-celebrates-2015-graduation
Of course today, privatization of higher education has resulted in student revolts, and remains a hot topic on campus and in the legislature.
“The Problem is Privatization, and it Can be Reversed” September 29, 2011
by Stanton A. Glantz, Professor of Medicine, UCSF
http://utotherescue.blogspot.com/2011/09/problem-is-privatization-and-it-can-be.html
“UC (and CSU’s) ongoing financial problems are not a result of the fact that alumni are not generous, they are the result of the failed policy of privatization that UC has been following since shortly after Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor. Schwarzenegger pursued an aggressive policy of privatization designed to shift the cost of higher education away from taxpayers on to students and their families.”
“School Privatization Is A Hoax, Reformers Aim To Destroy Public Schools” 2013 by Diane Ravitch (8 page Excerpt) from “Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools.”
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/15/diane_ravitch_school_privatization_is_a_hoax_reformers_aim_to_destroy_public_schools/
Barry Muitz is currently a founding partner of Rocky Mountain Resource Holdings (oil, gas, agriculture).
http://rmrholdings.com/team/
What's the story on Michael Milken?
“Today the public has only a dim recollection of what sent Milken to federal prison. Milken's defenders portray him as a financial genius who changed the country's capital markets for the better, but was caught up in the hysteria of the 1980s and unfairly scapegoated as a criminal. His critics more plausibly describe him as a crook, a man who used his financial know-how to fraudulently enrich himself and his associates, and whose machinations undermined the integrity of the market.”
“A quick refresher: At the investment firm Drexel Burnham Lambert, Milken virtually reinvented junk bonds; securities that are considered speculative and below investment grade. Before Milken, most junk bonds were fallen angels, bonds for companies that were once investment grade but had fallen on hard times. Milken had two key insights. First, a diversified portfolio of junk bonds could have extremely impressive returns since the high interest paid by the successful firms more than offset the losses resulting from defaults. Moreover, such bonds could be a perfect source of capital for risky start-ups. During the 1970s and 1980s, Milken ran with these insights, personally creating an enormous new market for high-yield securities. This is the achievement for which his defenders hail him as a financial genius. But Milken did not stop there. He and his accomplices allegedly conspired to engage in insider trading, arrange illegal take-overs, and defraud their customers. It was this activity that helped make him a billionaire, and sent him to prison.”
“Milken became a double-edged symbol of his time, an embodiment first of the "booming '80s" and then of the "decade of greed." Milken's x-shaped desk at the center of Drexel's Beverly Hills office became an object of legend, around which multimillion-dollar deals were negotiated by the hour. The junk bond market kept expanding, and with it Milken's net worth: In 1987 alone, he earned a whopping $550 million. Milken's junk bonds helped fuel new ventures such as MCI and Turner Broadcasting, but also helped destroy established corporations by funding corporate raiders. And with the advent of deregulation, junk bonds became entwined in the savings and loan mess. Ultimately, Milken was the target of a 98-count criminal indictment and a massive civil case filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).”
http://prospect.org/article/resurrection-michael-milken
Throughout this article it can be seen that the power and influence of Global Initiatives in re-structuring the social fabric of a society, had it's beginnings in the culture of corporate hostile takeovers. It's a business, and depends upon investment in new society infrastructures of production, and markets. Somewhere along the way, and as an industry response to market impacts by public outcry over deforestation issues of the 80's and 90's, there cropped up a new industry: the Certification Industry; and later, the certified offset certificate program (completely separate from the physical supply chain and cost effective in that it skips chain-of-custody assessment but promises increased market support for sustainable practices).
The offset certificate program for palm oil is a private fund, but parallel in purpose to the RSPO function (whom it works in support of) and is owned by one Europe's largest importers of palm oil. Brilliant. It's called GreenPalm and GreenPalm Brokerage – both are trading names of Book Claim Limited, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of AarhusKarlshamn UK Ltd. King George Dock Hull HU9 5PX U.K. AarhusKarlshamn UK Ltd (AAK) began life as Anglia Oils in 1982. The business was established in the UK as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Danish company Aarhus Olie, a world leader in specialty fats....
AAK is a food service company, bakery supplies, oils, etc.
GreenPalm exclusively operates the Book and Claim supply chain option for the RSPO since 2008. The certificate offsetting system allows product manufacturers who use palm, palm kernel oil or any palm based derivative/fraction in their products, to offset that physical oil by purchasing the equivalent amount of certificates, and products carry an attractive logo.
Indigenous communities continue to lose land, deforestation continues, CDM (Clean Development Mechanisms) foster green carbon trading schemes and another plantation earns carbon credits. Agroecology faces a model of 'scaling up' of the smallholder due to the lower production rates per acre of export crops. That very Initiative in itself, will allow expansion of toxic inputs to current small farmer holdings (certified by RSPO) to increase yields and change the very landscape dynamics of Agroecology. Industry's argument is that it offers protection from expanding into forests and yet will still be able to meet demand for global food production by 2050. (Once again that doesn't mean forests won't be encroached upon, or that habitat won't be destroyed, or that cultures won't be displaced, and stressed species pushed nearer to extinction.)
Latin America has been the experimental playground of global initiatives for 50 years.
There is an infinite growth paradigm here, the cause of environmental impacts, fractal in nature – roads are the beginning, for drilling, for mining, the logging, and it's only practical as communities of settlers arrive in new lands (populations of workers and landless populations). The process of obtaining land title, or legal status may precede land use change or come as a result. Initiatives for education are used to advance change, as is deployment of funding to accurately determine geographic boundaries precedes loans and credit for fertilizers and pesticides. All this on promised increased yields for the sustainable market economy will follow. Another 'Green Revolution' and riddled with controversy. The first two 'green revolutions' failed miserably, although export yields were increased briefly.
“With the Infinite Growth Monetary Paradigm Mother Earth cannot afford to repay One Point Four Quadrillion Dollars in debt through growth and she will not.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-p1OMuULAk
Soon I intend to publish an article on Agro-ecological principles and the progression in funding linguistics of Initiatives, now directing the conversation, from small farmer to small holder.
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Tomas DiFiore
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