Friday, February 25, 2011

Charles G. Koch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

charles g. koch

  • Date of birth: November 1, 1935
  • Profession: Businessperson, Chief Executive Officer
  • Board member for: Koch Industries
  • Spouse: Liz Koch
  • Parents: Mary Robinson Koch, Fred C. Koch
  • Nationality: American

source: freebase

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Early life, education, and career

Koch was born and lives in Wichita, Kansas, one of four sons of Mary Robinson and Fred C. Koch;[4][5] Koch's grandfather was a Dutch immigrant who settled in West Texas.[6] Koch's academic life was spent at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1957 he received a bachelor's degree in general engineering, a master's degree in mechanical engineering in 1958, and a masters degree in chemical engineering in 1960.[4] Koch first started working at Arthur D. Little, Inc.; Koch moved back to Wichita and joined Rock Island Oil & Refining Company in 1961.[7] In 1967 he became president of his father's business, which was then a medium-sized oil firm.[8] In the same year, he renamed the firm Koch Industries in honor of his father.[9] By 2006, Koch Industries had a $90 billion revenue and had grown by more than 2000 times under Koch with an annual compounded return of 18%.[10]

[edit] Market-Based Management

Koch's strategy for running a business, Market Based Management (MBM), is described in his 2007 book The Science of Success.[9] Koch Industries' 2004 acquisition of Invista "pushed him to write the book" in order to reach new employees with the philosophy.[9]

In the nearly 40 years that Koch has run Koch Industries, the company's revenue increased from $70 million to $90 billion.[11]

He supports "decision rights," which Koch says empowers employees to manage assets as if they were their own.[11] Koch holds his employees to a high standard after Koch was required to pay $30 million in government fines for an oil spill. "If somebody intentionally commits a compliance violation, they're gone," he told The Houston Chronicle.[11]

Too many companies, Koch says, focus on short-term gains rather than their long-term success. In Koch's view, companies ought to reinvest in their earnings in their future, and shareholders should "be willing to forgo larger dividends in the short term to enable the growth that would lead to much greater dividends over the long term."[11]

He believes that Berkshire Hathaway is another company that follows his principles of caring more about the long, rather than the short, term.[11] For that reason, he's against going public, saying that Koch Industries would go public "over my dead body." He saluted people running public companies. "My hat is off to people running public companies because there's such pressure to keep the stock price up. It's such a blessing being private." [12]

[edit] Views

Koch's views are described as libertarian. He told the National Journal that his "overall concept is to minimize the role of government and to maximize the role of private economy and to maximize personal freedoms."[13] Today, he worries about too much governmental regulation, writing, "We could be facing the greatest loss of liberty and prosperity since the 1930s."[14]

Philosophically Koch owes "a huge debt of gratitude to the giants who created the Austrian School" of economics.[7] Koch was especially impressed by Ludwig von Mises' Human Action, and sought to apply its ideas to his business practices early in his career.[15] Other influences on Koch include F.A. Hayek, Alexis de Tocqueville,[16] Adam Smith, Michael Polanyi,[7] Joseph Schumpeter, Julian Simon, Paul Johnson, Thomas Sowell, Charles Murray, Leonard Read, and F.A. Harper.[8] Brian Doherty, author of Radicals for Capitalism, and an editor of Reason, stated Robert LeFevre was an anarchist (autarchist) figure who won Koch's approval.[17]

To Koch, "the short-term infatuation with quarterly earnings on Wall Street restricts the earnings potential of Fortune 500 publicly traded firms".[8] Koch also considers public firms to be "feeding grounds for lawyers and lawsuits", with regulations like Sarbanes–Oxley only increasing the earnings potential of private firms.[8]

In an interview article for the Wall Street Journal, Stephen Moore writes "Charles Koch—no surprise—disdains government and the political class."[8] Koch thinks the billionaires Warren Buffett and George Soros, who fund organizations with different ideologies, "simply haven't been sufficiently exposed to the ideas of liberty".[8] Koch thinks "prosperity is under attack" by the Obama administration and "warns of policies that 'threaten to erode our economic freedom and transfer vast sums of money to the state'".[18]

Koch was careful to make clear that while he often disagrees with political decisions, Koch Industries does not try to skirt them. He writes in The Science of Success that in light of increased regulation,

We needed to be uncompromising [with our workforce], to expect 100 percent of our employees to comply 100 percent of the time with complex and ever-changing government mandates. Striving to comply with every law does not mean agreeing with every law. But, even when faced with laws we think are counter-productive, we must first comply. Only then, from a credible position, can we enter into a dialogue with regulatory agencies to demonstrate alternatives that are more beneficial. If these efforts fail, we can then join with others in using education and/or political efforts to change the law.[19]

Charles G. Koch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

David H. Koch | Ask.com Encyclopedia

David H. Koch

david h. koch

  • Date of birth: March 5, 1940
  • Profession: Businessperson
  • Board member for: Reason Foundation, Cato Institute
  • Parents: Fred C. Koch, Mary Robinson Koch
  • Nationality: American
  • Place of birth: Kansas

source: freebase

Wikipedia Citation on David H. Koch

Early life and education

Born in Wichita, Kansas, Koch is one of four sons of petroleum industry innovator Fred C. Koch. He attended the Deerfield Academy prep school in Massachusetts, graduating in 1959. He went on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), earning both a bachelor's (1962) and a master's degree (1963) in chemical engineering.

He established an MIT record in basketball by scoring an average of 21 points per game over three years, and held MIT's single-game scoring record of 41 points, from 1962 when he was captain of the team,[3] until it was broken in early 2009 by Jimmy Bartolotta.

Political career

Koch was the Libertarian Party's vice-presidential candidate in the 1980 presidential election, sharing the party ticket with presidential candidate Ed Clark. The Clark–Koch ticket promised to abolish Social Security, the Federal Reserve Board, welfare, minimum-wage laws, corporate taxes, all price supports and subsidies for agriculture and business, and U.S. Federal agencies including the SEC, EPA, ICC, FTC, OSHA, FBI, CIA, and DOE.[2][11] The ticket proposed legalization of prostitution, recreational drugs, and suicide.[2] The ticket received 921,128 votes, 1.06% of the total nationwide vote,[12] the Libertarian Party national ticket's best showing to date.[13]

After the bid, according to a book by Brian Doherty, an editor of Reason magazine, David and his brother Charles viewed politicians as "actors playing out a script" and they wanted to "supply the themes and words for the scripts" by influencing "the areas where policy ideas percolate from: academia and think tanks".[2]

Koch credits the campaign of Roger MacBride as his inspiration for getting involved in politics, telling a reporter from New York Magazine,

"Here was a great guy, advocating all the things I believed in. He wanted less government and taxes, and was talking about repealing all these victimless crime laws that accumulated on the books. I have friends who smoke pot. I know many homosexuals. It's ridiculous to treat them as criminals—and here was someone running for president, saying just that."[14]

According to Koch, he gave his own Vice Presidential campaign $100,000 a month after being chosen as Ed Clark's running mate. "We'd like to abolish the Federal Elections Commission and all the limits on campaign spending anyway," Koch told New York Magazine's Rinker Buch in 1980. When asked why he ran, Koch replied, "Lord knows I didn't need a job, but I believe in what the Libertarians are saying. I suppose if they hadn't come along, I could have been a big Republican from Wichita. But hell—everybody from Kansas is a Republican." [14]

He broke with the Libertarian Party in 1984 when it supported eliminating all taxes[15] and Koch has since been a Republican.[3]

Current political views

He opposed the Iraq war, supports gay marriage, and stem-cell research.[15] He is against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and was against the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.[15] Koch is unsure if global warming is caused by humans and thinks a warmer planet would be good because "[t]he Earth will be able to support enormously more people because a far greater land area will be available to produce food".[15]

Advocacy

See also: Political activities of the Koch family

In 1984, Koch founded, served as Chairman of the board of directors of, and donated to the free-market Citizens for a Sound Economy. In 2004, this organization separated into Americans for Prosperity Foundation and FreedomWorks. Koch continues as Chairman of the Board and gives money to Americans for Prosperity Foundation and to a related advocacy organization, Americans for Prosperity. A Koch spokesperson issued a press release stating that the Koch's have "no ties to and have never given money to FreedomWorks"[16]

Both FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity have been providing funding and training to the US Tea Party movement, which opposes much of U.S. President Barack Obama's policies and legislative agenda.[2] In addition, Koch sits on the board and gives money to the libertarian Cato Institute and Reason Foundation.[2][3][17] In the late summer and early fall of 2010, Koch's contributions to political campaigns, free-market think tanks and other advocacy organizations came under increased scrutiny. Koch supports the Tea Party movement and Republican candidates, and California Proposition 23 (2010). In July 2010, New York Magazine profiled him, calling him the "tea party’s wallet".[3] In August 2010, Jane Mayer of The New Yorker wrote on the political spending of David and Charles Koch.[18] White House political advisor David Axelrod wrote in The Washington Post, calling them "campaigners we can't see."[19] Koch says that: "I’ve never been to a tea party event. No one representing the tea party has ever even approached me."[15]

Philanthropy

Since 2000, Koch has pledged and/or donated more than $600 million to the arts, education and medical research, more than he gave to political causes.[20]

Arts

In July 2008, Koch pledged $100 million over 10 years to renovate the New York State Theater in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (now called the David H. Koch Theater),[21] and has pledged $10 million to renovate the outdoor fountains at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[22]

Koch has been a trustee of the American Ballet Theater for 25 years[23] and has contributed more than $6 million to the theater.[24]

Medical Research

A prostate cancer survivor,[25] Koch sits on the Board of Directors of the Prostate Cancer Foundation and has contributed $41 million to the Foundation, including $5 million to a collaborative project in the field of nanotechnology.[26] Koch is the eponym of the David H. Koch Chair of the Prostate Cancer Foundation, a position currently held by Dr. Jonathan Simons.

In 2007, he contributed $100 million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to help fund the construction of a new 350,000-square-foot (33,000 m2) research and technology facility to serve as the home of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.[27] He also contributed $20 million to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. The building he financed was named the David H. Koch Cancer Research Building.[28] $30 million to the Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center in New York,[29] $25 million to the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to establish the David Koch Center for Applied Research in Genitourinary Cancers,[30] $15 million to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center.[31]

Education

Koch contributed $7 million to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) show Nova,[32] and is a contributer to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., including a $20 million gift to the American Museum of Natural History, creating the David H. Koch Dinosaur Wing and a contribution of $15 million to the National Museum of Natural History to create the new David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins, which opened on the museum's 100th anniversary of its location on the National Mall on March 17, 2010.[33]

Koch also financed the construction of Deerfield Academy's $68 million Koch Center for mathematics, science and technology,[34] and was named the first and only Lifetime Trustee.[34]

Koch gave $10 million to the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory[35] where he was honored with the Double Helix Medal for Corporate Leadership for supporting research that, "improves the health of people everywhere."[36]

Real estate development

In May 2006 he sold what had been Jackie Kennedy's New York City apartment for more than $33 million.[37] He bought the apartment for $9.5 million in 1995.[38] He teamed up with members of New York City high society—including Victoria Newhouse, wife of media mogul S.I. Newhouse Jr., among others—to try to block Donald Trump's Trump World Tower.[39]

David H. Koch | Ask.com Encyclopedia

Another Runaway General: Army Deploys Psy-Ops on U.S. Senators | Rolling Stone Politics

orders came from the command of Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, a three-star general in charge of training Afghan troops – the linchpin of U.S. strategy in the war. Over a four-month period last year, a military cell devoted to what is known as "information operations" at Camp Eggers in Kabul was repeatedly pressured to target visiting senators and other VIPs who met with Caldwell….

Those singled out in the campaign included senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Jack Reed, Al Franken and Carl Levin; Rep. Steve Israel of the House Appropriations Committee; Adm. Mike Mullen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Czech ambassador to Afghanistan; the German interior minister, and a host of influential think-tank analysts.

  • compiling detailed profiles of the VIPs, including their voting records, their likes and dislikes, and their "hot-button issues."
  • IO [information operation] team to provide a "deeper analysis of pressure points we could use to leverage the delegation for more funds." The general’s chief of staff also asked Holmes how Caldwell could secretly manipulate the U.S. lawmakers without their knowledge. "How do we get these guys to give us more people?"

At a minimum, the use of the IO team against U.S. senators was a misue of vital resources designed to combat the enemy

In March 2010, Breazile issued a written order that "directly tasked" Holmes to conduct an IO campaign against "all DV visits" – short for "distinguished visitor." The team was also instructed to "prepare the context and develop the prep package for each visit." In case the order wasn’t clear enough, Breazile added that the new instructions were to "take priority over all other duties." Instead of fighting the Taliban,

Click on the following to read all of this story:  Another Runaway General: Army Deploys Psy-Ops on U.S. Senators | Rolling Stone Politics