Ross, Wilbur

Early years

The son of lawyer Wilbur Louis Ross, Sr. and teacher Agnes Ross (nee O'Neill). In 1959, he received a bachelor of arts degree from Yale University , and in 1961, a master 's degree in business administration from Harvard University .

Business career

From 1976 to 2000 he worked at the investment bank Rothschild , gaining a reputation as the largest specialist in the field of crisis management during periods of bankruptcy. In 2000 he opened his own company WL Ross & Co. LLC, in 2002, established the metallurgical company International Steel Group (ISG), which in 2003 launched its shares on the market. In 2004, I bought up at auction the assets of Horizon Natural Resources in bankruptcy and founded the coal mining company International Coal Group (ICG) on its basis. On January 2, 2006, at the Sago Mine mine in West Virginia , owned by the ICG, twelve miners were killed. By November 2011, the company satisfied all claims of victims (in June 2011, Arch Coal, Inc. bought it for $ 3.4 billion). In September 2011, bought 9.3% of the Bank of Ireland . In March 2016, Forbes magazine placed Ross on the 595th place in the list of billionaires, assessing his personal fortune at $ 2.9 billion ^[1] .

In 1990, Donald Trump financed the construction of his famous Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City , issuing bonds worth $ 675 million at 14% per annum. When the billionaire's gambling business began to experience difficulties, he delayed payments to bondholders who began to demand Trump’s bankruptcy and removal from management, but Wilbur Ross, then head of the bankruptcy division of Rothschild, intervened in the situation - he became a representative of investors and was able to resolve the conflict by saving Trump his property ^[2] .

Ross was an adviser to the mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, in matters of privatization, and also advised the Bill Clinton administration on Russian-American trade problems ^[3] (he worked for the American-Russian investment fund TUSRIF , created by the Clinton administration to organize investments in Russian companies with the assistance of United States Agency for International Development and existing until 2008 ^[4] ).

In 2004, he bought the textile company Cone Mills Corporation (the world's largest manufacturer of denim ), which was in the process of bankruptcy, and founded Mermaid International Textile Group by merging it with its company Burlington Industries (in addition to denim, both companies also produced jacquard ). After the bankruptcy procedure was completed, the total debt of the two combined companies was to be $ 75 million ^[5] .

In 2006, Invesco Ltd. bought WL Ross & Co., but Ross remained at the head of the company, which by 2014 managed a capital of 7 billion dollars ^[6] .

In 2006, Ross, in collaboration with investment funds managed by Franklin Mutual Advisers LLC, created the International Automotive Components Group (IAC). In 2013, the company had a successful IPO (managed to attract $ 115 million), with 79 enterprises producing automobile spare parts in 18 countries and delivering to corporations such as Ford , General Motors , Honda and others ^[7] .

Secretary of Commerce

During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump participated in the formulation of the economic program of the candidate ^[8] .

On November 24, 2016, there were reports that the elected President of the United States, Donald Trump, decided to propose Ross to the Senate for approval as Minister of Commerce in his future cabinet . February 27, 2017 approved by vote of the US Senate .

On May 31, 2018, Ross announced the establishment of customs tariffs of 25% for steel imports and 10% for aluminum imports from the European Union , Canada and Mexico. The decision taken by the Trump administration explained the excessively protracted negotiations with neighbors to revise the agreement on the North American free trade area and insufficient progress in similar negotiations with Europe ^[10] .

On June 14, 2018, Ross, together with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Finance Minister Stephen Mnuchin, took part in a meeting with President Trump on increasing customs duties on imports from China of 1,300 high-tech goods from China ^[11] , and the next day, 15 June, Trump officially announced the implementation of this measure, to which China immediately promised to give an adequate response ^[12] .

On July 6, 2018, the announced decision came into force (in the amount of $ 34 billion), and on the same day, official representatives of the PRC announced the introduction of mirror countermeasures against American goods, which made the press speak about the beginning of a trade war between the two largest economies in the world ^[13] .

On May 16, 2019, Ross announced the entry into force on the following day of American sanctions against the Chinese corporation Huawei (it is prohibited to acquire components of electronic devices and technology of American firms without permission from the US government) ^[14] .

Connection with Russia

According to the Paradise Papers archive published by the Süddeutsche Zeitung on November 5, 2017 ^{[15] [app. 1]} , Wilbur Ross, through offshore companies in the Cayman Islands , owns a contribution to Navigator Holdings , a company that transports oil from the Russian corporation Sibur ^[16] . The information caused a scandal, as some Sibur shareholders are under US sanctions ^[16] .

On May 26, 1961, Ross married Judith Nodine, two daughters were born in this marriage - Jessica and Amanda (a divorce was registered in 1995). In 1995, he married , in 2000 he divorced. In the same year, McCoy sued $ 40 million for her ex-husband and his accountant, claiming that they forced her to sign a marriage agreement in exchange for full funding of her 1998 election campaign for the post of vice-governor of New York . According to the lawsuit, she did receive 500 thousand dollars, but after the unsuccessful elections for her, she was left with a debt of 90 thousand dollars. On October 9, 2004, Ross married Hilary Geary ^{[17] [18]} .

Notes

1. ↑ Archive containing 13.4 million documents related to , including well-known public figures. November 5, 2017 published by the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung , at one time publicized by the so-called. " Panamanian archive ."

Footnotes

• # 232 Wilbur Ross, Jr. (eng.) Forbes 400 . Forbes. The appeal date is November 28, 2016.