Robert Mosbacher

Robert Mosbacher

Robert Adam Mosbacher (born March 11, 1927 in Mount Vernon , New York , † January 24, 2010 in Houston , Texas ) was an American businessman and politician of the Republican Party .

biography

After attending the Choate School in White Plains , Mosbacher studied business administration at Washington and Lee University and graduated in 1947 with a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA). The following year he went to Houston, where he went into business for himself and founded an extremely successful oil and gas company that operated in both the US and the international market and ultimately made him a multimillionaire .

In the early 1960s he began to be politically active on the part of the Republican Party and initially worked as a fundraiser for several Republican candidates in southeast Texas. In 1968 he was the campaign manager for presidential candidate Richard Nixon in Harris County and thus also in Houston.

In the presidential election campaign of George Bush sr. In 1988 he was its chief fundraiser and thus had a significant influence on the success of the election campaign by collecting donations. After being sworn in as US President , Bush appointed him to his cabinet as Commerce Secretary on January 31, 1989 . During his tenure, which lasted until January 15, 1992, Mosbacher played a key role in calling for a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which was ultimately established on January 1, 1994 under Bush's successor, Bill Clinton . Barbara Franklin succeeded as Minister of Commerce .

Most recently, Mosbacher was chairman of the election campaign for the unsuccessful Republican candidate John McCain in the presidential election .

When Mosbacher died of a pancreatic tumor after a long illness , ex-President George Bush Sr., who was also his long-term close friend, paid tribute to him as follows:

“He was an honorable and first-rate businessman and perhaps the most astute business man I have ever known. Together we took part in a journey that led to the presidency, to the summit of American politics, and there we worked together to help America embrace the world around us and measure ourselves against it in the emerging global markets, which the waning Cold War made possible. No doubt he will be remembered as one of the most successful trade ministers in our nation's history. "

The director and filmmaker Dee Mosbacher is his daughter.

Mosbacher was also a successful sailor .

Web links

• Robert Mosbacher in the nndb (English)
• Robert Mosbacher at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia (English)
• AP: "Ex-US Commerce Secretary Mosbacher Dies in Houston"