PEBO to Name Fred Hochberg to Head Export-Import Bank
EmailABC News has learned that President-elect Barack Obama intends to name Fred Hochberg as chair of the Export-Import Bank.
Hochberg, currently the dean of Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy, served as deputy and then acting administrator of the Small Business Administration from 1998 through 2000 and on President Clinton’s Management Council. Before that, he served as president of Heyday Company, a private investment firm managing real estate, stock market investments, and venture capital projects.
The Export-Import Bank of the United States is the official export credit agency of the federal government, with a mission of creating U.S. jobs by financing sales of goods exported from the U.S. to international buyers.
Hochberg will be the first openly gay director of the bank, having served as a former board member and current member of the public policy committee of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay and lesbian rights organization. Originally a supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, raising more than $100,000 for the junior New York Senator, Hochberg became a stalwart ally of Obama’s, raising a similar amount for his new boss, should Hochberg be confirmed.
– jpt
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Gee, how open IS he? And here we’d always thought “import-export” was just a cover for these guys to travel to Thailand.
Posted by: Belle Starr | January 9, 2009, 11:42 am 11:42 am
Good ol’ Belle Starr, proving once again that negative people can find negativity in absolutely anything!
What’s next, Belle? Picking on the Obama girls Malia and Sasha?
Posted by: William J. LePetomane | January 9, 2009, 12:20 pm 12:20 pm
Rather than cracking gay-insensitive jokes, I hope readers will congratulate Fred Hochberg on this tremendous accomplishment. This is a major appointment and a reasonable “consolation prize” to Commerce Secretary, for which Hochberg was also seriously considered.
In addition to heaping this well-deserved praise on Hochberg, I’d also like to applaud the work of EQUAL REPresentation for its substantial effort to publicize Hochberg’s outstanding background & qualifications. EQUAL REP demonstrated that Hochberg has what it takes to be Commerce Secretary. That supported selecting him to a related position, like Director of the Export/Import Bank.
An abundance of praise also goes to Paul Sousa, the founder of EQUAL REP, and to a small army of gay & straight Hochberg supporters who conducted an impressive campaign to get The New School’s Dean (Hochberg) appointed as Commerce Secretary. EQUAL REP, in which I played no role prior to Hochberg’s candidacy, focuses on rapid, online mobilizing to lobby for appointment or election of specific politicians. My only role was to help EQUAL REP in its campaign to support Hochberg’s appointment. Prior to that, I did’t even know EQUAL REP existed.
Posted by: Bob Niemic | January 9, 2009, 7:53 pm 7:53 pm