NATO's corporate friends
Kjell S Johansen (kjellsjo@online.no)
Thu, 15 Apr 1999 09:40:36 +0200
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>Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1999 12:58:55 -0400
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>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood@panix.com>
>Subject: NATO's corporate friends
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>The Washington Post - April 13, 1999
>
>COUNT CORPORATE AMERICA AMONG NATO'S STAUNCHEST ALLIES
>
>By Tim Smart
>
> For many Washingtonians, the NATO military alliance's upcoming
>50th-anniversary bash may end up being notable only for nightmare
>traffic tie-ups. For a few companies, though, the summit could be the
>ultimate marketing opportunity.
> A handful of top-drawer U.S. companies -- including heavyweights
>such as Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. as well as upstarts
>such as Nextel Communications Inc., a McLean-based wireless
>communications firm -- will be the gathering's hosts and as such will
>get to showcase their wares and schmooze with top military and
>political leaders from 44 nations at events taking place throughout the
>District.
> A dozen companies have paid $250,000 apiece in cash or "in-kind"
>contributions for the privilege of having their chief executives serve as
>directors of the NATO summit's host committee. The group is a
>private-sector support system raising $8 million to finance the April 23-
>25 event.
> While company representatives express disdain at the notion they
>will be lobbying NATO officials for business, many of the firms on the
>host committee sell precisely the kinds of products most in demand by
>the emerging economies of Eastern and Central Europe -- which
>include NATO's newest members and some prospective additions.
>Ameritech, for instance, is interested in running international phone
>networks. United Technologies Corp. views emerging or developing
>countries as a big potential market for its Otis elevators and Carrier air-
>conditioning and heating units. Both Ford and GM have auto plants
>throughout Europe. Their target audience? Heads of state and key
>cabinet ministers from the 19 NATO members, accompanied by
>leaders from 25 nations that make up the Partnership for Peace,
>countries with aspirations to join the alliance. The guests will be
>accessible for the kind of low-key lobbying and wining and dining
>customary at such international gatherings. About 1,700 dignitaries are
>expected to attend -- along with a media contingent of 3,000.
> "The business community was in it from Day One," said Alan John
>Blinken, a former U.S. ambassador to Belgium and investment banker
>who is heading the host committee. "In a lot of these cases, they came
>to us -- we didn't solicit them."
> A second tier of firms, including Washington powerhouse law and
>lobbying firms Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, and Verner,
>Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand, are members of the
>committee. Other companies, such as Eastman Kodak Co. and missile
>manufacturer Raytheon Co., are participating but taking a less public
>role. And more are still being courted. "They're actually wooing our
>CEO right now," said Gerald Robbins of 3Com Corp.'s Washington
>office. The communications networking company has a contract with
>NATO to supply equipment for the military alliance's AWACS
>surveillance and control planes that are being flown over Kosovo.
>"NATO is a big customer," Robbins said.
> Some host committee members, including Nextel, also hope to
>attract the attention of top U.S. government officials at the summit. The
>company is providing almost 2,000 of Motorola Inc.'s I-1000
>combination cell phone and two-way radios to visiting foreign
>dignitaries and members of the State Department's summit staff. Four
>hundred of the $299 phones will be embossed with a special
>anniversary emblem.
> Hungary, one of NATO's three newest members, held a reception
>last week at its embassy here, where Nextel's general manager, Nick
>Sample, proudly displayed one of the phones. Beaming, he told of how
>the product had recently been added to the General Services
>Administration's list of approved merchandise, allowing government
>purchasing officers to order the wireless communications gear. Having
>Nextel phones widely available to high-level bureaucrats as well as
>foreign heads of state is the kind of marketing that can only be labeled
>as priceless.
> For the guests, it's free, as Nextel is providing the phones gratis.
>"We've had quite a few inquiries already from the FBI, the State
>Department and the CIA," Sample said.
> Corporate support for the NATO summit is an outgrowth of the
>active role many U.S. companies, particularly defense contractors such
>as Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, have played in the move to
>enlarge NATO beyond its traditional U.S.-Western Europe axis. U.S.
>defense companies lobbied hard in Congress in recent years to admit
>the former Soviet satellites Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic.
> "Companies like Lockheed Martin, for example, and all of them
>were active with me overseas," said former congressman Gerald B.H.
>Solomon, who headed a House task force appointed by former House
>speaker Newt Gingrich to push the membership issue.
> Solomon, now a private lobbyist, said he traveled throughout
>Eastern and Central Europe spreading the message that if the United
>States was going to be NATO's principal military power, supplying
>most of its high-tech weaponry, then U.S. defense firms should receive
>contracts to rearm the former Soviet states.
> "We wanted them to buy American," Solomon said.
> Corporate representatives say private-sector underwriting of an
>international meeting for sovereign nations is standard business
>practice these days, though the NATO event is a far bigger draw than
>other international get-togethers.
> "This is a very unique beast," said Sally Painter, a lobbyist for
>Tenneco Inc. on leave from the auto parts and packaging conglomerate
>while serving as chief operating officer of the host committee. Painter,
>previously a top aide to then-commerce secretary Ronald H. Brown,
>was involved in international business development for Tenneco.
>"These are global corporations that understand the role stability plays
>with investment. There's no quid pro quo at all."
> Jim Christy, vice president of government relations for TRW Inc.,
>said it makes sense for companies, rather than the member nations, to
>foot the bill for such events.
> "Whether it's the [Group of Seven] summit in Denver or the
>Summit of the Americas in Miami, there are not government funds
>available," Christy said, noting that TRW Chairman Joseph Gorman
>was personally approached by Blinken on behalf of the host committee.
> "My chairman is public-spirited and agreed to do so," Christy said.
> TRW, though it has no contracts to provide products to NATO, is
>one of a handful of companies providing critical communications and
>defense supplies to the U.S. military. Along with donating $250,000 in
>cash to the summit, TRW is developing its World Wide Web site.
> "We were hit up for the Summit of the Americas" Christy said,
>adding that TRW did not contribute money for the meeting but built the
>summit's Web site for free.
> Blinken said that the expansion of NATO and the pro-Western tilt
>of countries formerly tied to the Soviet Union have created "major new
>trading partners" for the United States but that today the interest in new
>markets comes not only from arms merchants but also from a variety of
>technology firms, including Ameritech Corp., Lucent Technologies Inc.
>and Nextel.
> "Most of the companies are not companies you would have
>expected in the old day, companies selling bombs and missiles, what
>have you," Blinken said. "You've got communications companies."
> Yet a good number of the firms on the host committee sell
>weaponry. Although the economic crisis that spread throughout Asia
>and other parts of the world last summer has somewhat cooled their
>enthusiasm, new NATO members such as Poland and other countries
>such as Turkey are viewed as prime candidates for U.S. weapons.
>Poland has been considering new fighter jets from either Lockheed or
>Boeing Co.
> TRW's Christy said the summit was low on the radar of most
>companies just a couple of months ago, when the events committee
>made its first solicitations. But the fighting in Yugoslavia has focused
>attention on the gathering.
> "All of a sudden," he said, "now this is beginning to burnish a little
>into the consciousness."
>
>NATO Access
>
> Here are the 12 companies that have paid $250,000 to have an
>executive (in parentheses) serve as one of the directors on the NATO
>summit's host committee:
>
> Ameritech (Richard Notebaert)
> DaimlerChrysler (Robert Liberatore)
> Boeing (Christopher W. Hansen)
> Ford Motor (Jacques A. Nasser)
> General Motors (George A. Peapples)
> Honeywell (Michael R. Bonsignore)
> Lucent Technologies (Richard A. McGinn)
> Motorola (Arnold Brenner)
> Nextel Communications (Daniel F. Akerson)
> SBC Communications (Edward E. Whitacre Jr.)
> TRW (Joseph Gorman)
> United Technologies (George David)
>
> SOURCE: NATO Anniversary Summit Host Committee
>
>