President Joe Biden announced his nominee for Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. Biden is two for two in naming private equity underwriters (PEU) to his administration. Chief of Staff Ron Klain worked for Revolution LLC. Antony Blinken worked for Pine Island Capital Partners. Their website shows Blinken's status as "on leave."
Pine Island Capital Partners offers a differentiated approach to private equity investing in the middle market.
Pine Island has combined an experienced investment team with a group of deeply-connected and accomplished former senior government and military officials. Each of our D.C. partners teams with the investment professionals to actively participate in sourcing deals, conducting analyses, winning bids, closing transactions, and directly advising the companies in which Pine Island invests.
Blinken used his deep connections to aid the greed and leverage boys.
Pine Island Capital Partners seeks to invest in attractive mid-sized companies, with enterprise values ranging from $50 million to $500 million, that are positioned to benefit from the deep industry expertise, experience, and relationships that the firm’s partnership model can offer.
Investments may take the form of a number of different transactions, including buyouts, roll-ups, recapitalizations, asset sales, divestitures, growth capital, and special situations.
Surely there are talented Americans who haven't prioritized interest and special distributions over employees. Blinken represents the winners in the U.S. economy over the last four decades. He is of the executive class that has screwed workers while profiting handsomely.
Somehow FT couldn't find Blinken's PEU background in their story on Biden's announcement. Blinken and Flournoy founded WestExec Advisors in 2018. WestExec and Pine Island are intertwined.
Additional Pine Island Capital Partners are under consideration for cabinet slots under President Elect Biden. Politicians Red and Blue love PEU. That pattern is yet to break.
Update 5-10-21: ABC News reported:
Late last month, secretary of state nominee Tony Blinken reported making more than $1 million from his consulting firm WestExec Advisors, and entered an agreement to divest from the firm, according to his disclosures.
What about his stake in Pine Island Capital and their funds/affiliates?
