Friday, April 11, 2014

Condoleeza Rice's Board Seats = Cashbox


Businessweek broke the news that Dropbox appointed Condoleeza Rice to its board of directors.  Rice's consulting firm worked with Dropbox.  The director's chair is not new to Condi.

Kior Inc. reported in a 2013 SEC filing:

Condoleezza Rice, Ph.D., age 58, has been a member of our Board of Directors since August 2011. Dr.Rice is on the board of Makena Capital, a private endowment firm, and C3, an energy software company. She has also served on the boards of directors for Chevron Corporation, Charles Schwab Corporation, Transamerica Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company and the International Advisory Council of J.P. Morgan.


Kior - Rice's 2013 Director Compensation totaled $196,444.

The company's 2014 10-K stated:
We are a next-generation renewable fuels company, developing a commercial process to produce cellulosic gasoline and diesel from abundant, lignocellulosic biomass. We have substantial doubts about our ability to continue as a going concern.
Kior has nearly $70 million in loans from the Mississippi Development Authority which may come due to performance failures under the agreement.

Makena Capital - "We invest globally across multiple asset classes, including Private Equity, Real Estate, Natural Resources, Absolute Return, Global Public Equity, Tactical/Hedged Equity and Fixed Income, applying a proprietary currency management overlay to optimize risk adjusted returns."

C3 - "C3 Energy offers smart grid analytics SaaS solutions that enable utilities to realize the full promise of their investments in the smart grid." The company was poised to make money off carbon emission tracking and trading.

In addition Rice served as Senior Advisor for the Regions Financial Board of Directors for three years.

Back to Dropbox, Rice's latest board seat.  Earlier this year Dropbox raised capital through a $450 million stock offering.  Allen & Company and Goldman Sachs brokered Dropbox shares to private buyers.  Fidelity is one big shareholder. Others include BlackRock and T. Rowe Price.