William E. Simon

Portrait of William E. Simon in the US Treasury Department

William Edward Simon (born November 27, 1927 in Paterson (New Jersey) , † June 3, 2000 in Santa Barbara (California) ) was an American businessman and politician . From 1974 to 1977 he was US Treasury Secretary .

Studies and professional career

The son of an insurance salesman completed school and military service in the United States Army to study at Lafayette College in Easton (Pennsylvania) , which he graduated in 1952 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) .

After completing his studies, he initially worked for various insurance companies, where he was vice president, among other things. He later became a senior partner and member of the executive committee of the market maker Salomon Brothers , where he was responsible for the government and municipal bonds departments.

Political career

Deputy Minister of Finance

On January 22, 1973, he moved from business to the government of President Richard Nixon , where he was Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. As such, he was primarily responsible for transforming and improving financial institutions. At the same time he was initially head of the federal energy office , a forerunner of the energy ministry founded in 1977 . At the height of the first global oil crisis , he became the founder and head of the Federal Energy Administration on December 4, 1973, which earned him the name "Energy Czar" (Energy Czar) in the press. He also advised the President on all energy policy matters .

Finance minister

Signature of William E. Simon on US $ banknotes

On May 8, 1974, he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Nixon to succeed George P. Shultz . He also held this office under Gerald Ford , who succeeded Nixon and was President from August 9, 1974 until the end of his term on January 20, 1977.

President Ford also appointed him chairman of the economic planning committee. In this role he was also the government's chief spokesman on economic issues. On April 8, Simon also became chairman of the East-West Foreign Trade Committee, which was newly created by the 1974 Trade Act.

Other activities

Activities in business

After retiring from politics, he was first vice-chairman of the investment bank Blyth Eastman Dillon until 1980 , before he founded his own company (WESRAY Corporation) together with a tax advisor, which made him a multimillionaire through targeted investments. In the following years he took over other institutions and founded his own commercial bank. He has also served on the boards of directors and boards of over thirty companies including Xerox , Citibank , Halliburton and United Technologies Corporation .

Activities in the US National Olympic Committee

Simon was more than thirty years a member of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and also its treasurer from 1977 to 1981. He was then President of the USOC until 1985 and thus "host" of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles . He also had a seat on the Executive Committee of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee . He was then chairman of the American Olympic Foundation from 1985 to 1997. In addition, he held numerous other offices within the sports associations.

President of the John M. Olin Foundation

From 1977 until his death in 2000 he was President of the Conservative John M. Olin Foundation . In his books A Time for Truth (1978) and A Time for Action (1980) he formulated his political goals in sharp form. In doing so, he showed himself to be a staunch opponent of the regulating state and in particular of environmental protection, and he described politicians who acted in the name of a public interest as “new despots” who threatened the only legitimate power of the free market. Under his leadership, the Olin Foundation donated large sums to leading universities such as Harvard , which new research institutes were set up and in particular the specialist Law and Economics ( "Law and Economics ") was established as an important part of legal education.

Awards

In 1976 the President of Egypt Anwar as-Sadat awarded him the highest Egyptian order " Order of the Nile " (Kiladate El Nile). In 1977 he received the Alexander Hamilton Award , a prize named after the first US Treasury Secretary. After all, he was also an active knight of the Order of Malta .

In 1986 , the University of Rochester renamed its management school to the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration in recognition of its visionary achievements in business, finance and public services .

Because of his services to the sport, he was inducted into the US Olympic Hall of Fame in 1991. He was also awarded the Olympic Order by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) .

Publications

• A Time For Truth , 1978
• A Time For Action , 1980

Web links

• Biography and portrait on the US Treasury website
• Biography on the Lafayette College website
• William E. Simon in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)
• Obituary for Simon in the Los Angeles Times

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jane Mayer: Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. Doubleday, New York 2016, ISBN 978-0-3855-3559-5 . Pp. 101-111.