James Harmon

Last updated
James A. Harmon
James Harmon 2009.jpg
Born (1935-10-12) October 12, 1935 (age 89)
New York City, United States
Alma mater Brown University (BA)
Wharton School (MBA)
Occupation(s) Chairman & CIO, Caravel Management
Years active1959–present
Spouse
Jane Harmon
​
(m. 1957)​
Children3

James A. Harmon (born October 12, 1935) is chairman of the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund, and an American fund manager; founder, chairman and chief investment officer of Caravel Management LLC; [1] longtime investment banker; and co-chairman of the World Resources Institute. He was the 18th chairman and president of the Export–Import Bank of the United States, and has served on numerous public and private boards of directors.

Contents

Early life and education

Harmon was born in New York City and raised in Mamaroneck, New York, son of Belle Harmon (née Kirschner), a local dress shop owner and Bert Harmon, a New York real estate attorney. Among his grandparents was Bessie Hamburger, one of the first female Assistant District Attorneys in New York and a pioneer among women lawyers is domestic relations law, specifically marital relations. [2]

After graduating from the Berkshire School, Harmon earned a BA in English Literature from Brown University in 1957, and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1959. He and his wife, Jane Harmon (née Theaman), were married in 1957 in Scarsdale, New York.[4] His wife is a theatrical producer who has produced Broadway plays, including Driving Miss Daisy and The Last Night of Ballyhoo . Harmon and his wife reside in Weston, Connecticut.[5] They have three children and four grandchildren.[5]

Career

Wall Street years

Harmon worked on Wall Street for 38 years. He spent 15 years at broker-dealer New York Hanseatic Corp, and in 1974 he joined investment banking firm Wertheim & Co. as chairman of the investment banking committee. [3] [4] He was vice chairman at Wertheim when he had a chance meeting with old friend and Schroder’s director Alva Way on a flight from London to New York; the ensuing conversation led to Schroder’s acquisition of a half interest of the firm in 1986. [5] [6] The firm was renamed Wertheim Schroder & Co. The transaction allowed Wertheim to stabilize its capital base and gave the firm access to Schroder’s client base in Europe and Asia. [5] In 1990, Wertheim Schroder sold 4.9% non-voting interests to Bank of Boston, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company and Mitsubishi Trust and Banking Corporation, as a way to continue growing without expanding the firm. [6] Harmon served as chairman and CEO of Wertheim Schroder from 1986 until the end of 1995, and was the senior chairman until June 1997. [7] He served on the board of a number of U.S. and U.K. public companies.

Export-Import Bank of the United States

On May 6, 1997, President Bill Clinton nominated Harmon for president and chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, which makes billions in loan guarantees to developing nations to purchase goods and services from the US. [8] [9] The US Senate confirmed the nomination on June 12, 1997. [9] At the time, there was an emerging markets crisis, fueled by the collapse of Thailand’s currency, which affected other countries in the region, [3] and large credit defaults in Russia and Latin America. [8] Harmon was confident that the emerging markets economy would soon recover. [3] Due to these market conditions during Harmon’s tenure, the focus of the bank’s loan guarantees went from government-related to private ventures. [8] Harmon’s term was to end in January 2001 but he was asked to extend his term through May 2001 by Vice President Dick Cheney. [10]

Caravel Management LLC

His stint as head of the Ex-Im Bank was Harmon’s introduction to frontier markets. [8] In October 2004, Harmon founded Caravel Management, where he serves as chairman and chief investment officer. The New York-based firm invests in special situations in frontier and emerging markets, currently in Egypt and Zimbabwe.

World Resources Institute

In 2004, Harmon was elected chairman of the World Resources Institute (WRI), [4] an independent nonprofit organization founded in 1982, focused on global environmental policy research and analysis. [11] WRI has over 1400 employees, and in addition to its main office in Washington, DC, WRI maintains offices in China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Ethiopia, Brazil and a European headquarters in The Hague. [12]

Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund

Following the 2011 Egyptian revolution, President Barack Obama pledged $1 billion in economic aid to Egypt. In July 2012, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Egypt to meet newly elected President Mohamed Morsi. During this visit, Clinton announced that Harmon would head the new Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund ("EAEF"). [13] [14] Secretary of State John Kerry announced in March 2013 that the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund would be launched by the US. In an effort to boost Egypt’s ailing economy, the fund was to invest in small- and medium-sized Egyptian businesses. [15] [16] The fund was officially launched on April 24, 2013. [14] In 2015, the EAEF made its first two major investments in Fawry, an electronic payments platform and Sarwa Capital, a consumer finance company, which help to promote financial inclusion in Egypt.

In June 2017, Harmon testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee about the achievements of EAEF to date, offering praise for Egypt’s economic reform agenda, and encouraging Congress to explore how enterprise funds can be incorporated into the U.S. foreign policy apparatus.[ [14] He reiterated these comments in an op-ed later that summer when members of Congress and the Trump administration considered cutting foreign aid to Egypt over human rights concerns. In the EAEF’s 2017 annual report, Harmon stated that the “EAEF has invested 180 million and grown its portfolio to include four private companies and three investment funds….[and] attracted an additional USD 130 million from foreign institutional investors, doubling the impact of our efforts….and created more than 500 jobs.” Congress has authorized $300 million for investment in the Fund.

In August 2018, the Center for Strategic and International Studies ("CSIS") released a report, entitled "Time for a Third Wave of Enterprise Funds," [17] which highlighted the success of the Egyptian American Enterprise Fund and advocated for a new set of enterprise funds to be created in Central America, southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

In April 2019, David Ignatius of the Washington Post, published an opinion piece on the EAEF, "The story of a private-equity fund shows how a U.S.-Egypt reset could begin." [18]

Politics

Harmon served as finance chairman for incumbent New York Mayor David Dinkins’ unsuccessful 1993 campaign for reelection. Harmon was Dinkins’ second-highest fundraiser, raising $155,300 for the mayor’s campaign. [19] Harmon helped raise over $100,000 for President Bill Clinton’s successful 1996 campaign for reelection. [3]

Other work

In 1976, Harmon was appointed a director of Questar Corporation, an energy company focused on natural gas production and distribution. He resigned in 1997 in order to head the Export-Import Bank of the United States. In 2001, after completing his term with the bank, he was reappointed as a Questar director. [20] In 2010, Questar spun off exploration and production businesses, Questar Market Resources, to QEP Resources. [21] Harmon served on the board of QEP until May 2011 when he stepped down. [22]

In the 1980s, he served on the board of film production company Orion Pictures, [3] and, prior to its 1987 merger with Warner Music, Harmon served as chairman of Chappell Music. [23]

In 1995, he became chairman of a newly formed company, Latin Communications Group Inc., which invested in the Spanish language daily El Diario , with an aim at purchasing additional Spanish-language media outlets. [24] [25] Latin Communications Group was purchased by Entravision Communications in 1999. [26]

In 2001, he founded Harmon & Co., a financial advisory firm providing services globally to private and public institutions. [27] He serves as the company’s chairman. [22]

From 2002 to 2003, Harmon served as chairman of the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA), a nonprofit that promotes trade and investment between the United States and Africa. [28] While he was chairman the CCA partnered with the Council on Foreign Relations (of which he is a member), the Institute for International Economics and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, to launch the Commission on Capital Flows to Africa. He chaired the commission that presented its final report to the US government in June 2003. [29]

He was a member of the World Panel on Financing Water Infrastructure, formed by the Global Water Partnership, the Read the user guide World Water Council and the 3rd World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan, to consider solutions to global water needs. [30] He was also a member of the Advisory Committee on International Capital Markets; the nominating committee of the Board of the New York Stock Exchange; and the board of directors of the Securities Industry Association. [31]

In 2009, he established the Harmon Family Professorship of Africana Studies at Brown University, his alma mater. [32] Harmon is a trustee emeritus of Brown University and Barnard College. [7] He was a member of the boards of directors of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University; and was a member of the boards of directors of the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC, and Africare. [7] [33]

He was the US representative on the 2011 High Level Panel for Infrastructure Investment, a panel appointed by the finance ministers and central bank governors of the G20 summit in France. The purpose of the panel was to make recommendations for the summit regarding worldwide financing and infrastructure needs. [34]

Publications

In 2021, Harmon published a memoir, Up and Doing: Two Presidents, Three Mistakes, and One Great Weekend--Touchpoints to a Better World.

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References

  1. ↑ "A King of the Wild Frontier". Bloomberg. December 30, 2007.
  2. ↑ "Abandonment by Bessie Hamburger.pdf". Google Docs. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 “A King of the Wild Frontier,” Bloomberg Businessweek , December 19, 2007.
  4. 1 2 “James A. Harmon (Chairman of the Board),” World Resources Institute. Accessed June 12, 2013.
  5. 1 2 “Wertheim Selling a Big Stake,” New York Times, June 10, 1986.
  6. 1 2 Rosabeth M. Kanter, Kalman D. Applbaum, Pamela A. Yatsko and Lisa K. Gabriel, “Wertheim Schroder/Schroders,” Harvard Business School Case 394-053, October 1993, p. 1.
  7. 1 2 3 Executive Profile: James A. Harmon [ dead link ], Bloomberg Businessweek. Accessed June 12, 2013.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Eric Uhlfelder, “Rewarding Voyages,” Barron's , July 28, 2008.
  9. 1 2 Press Release, “New Leadership Team at Export-Import Bank,” Archived 2013-09-15 at the Wayback Machine Export-Import Bank of the United States, July 9, 1997.
  10. ↑ Congressional Record, Volume 147, Part 7 [ permanent dead link ], May 22, 2001 to June 11, 2001, p. 9187.
  11. ↑ “A Brief History of WRI,” Archived 2013-07-02 at the Wayback Machine World Resources Institute. Accessed June 12, 2013.
  12. ↑ “Kitty van der Heijden to Join WRI as Director for Europe, Based in Brussels,” Archived 2013-06-29 at archive.today World Resources Institute, June 12, 2013.
  13. ↑ Kari Huus, “Clinton holds first meeting with Egypt’s Morsi amid political standoff,” NBC News, July 14, 2012.
  14. 1 2 3 “Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund launched: MENA,” Al-Ahram, April 24, 2013.
  15. ↑ Jill Dougherty, “U.S. releases $250 million in aid to Egypt,” CNN, March 3, 2013.
  16. ↑ Hanan Solayman, “Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund launches to support Egyptian startups,” wamda.com, May 21, 2013.
  17. ↑ Runde, Daniel F.; Bandura, Romina; Milner, Aaron (August 2019). "Time for a Third Wave of Enterprise Funds". CSIS.
  18. ↑ "The story of a private-equity fund shows how a U.S.-Egypt reset could begin". Washington Post. April 4, 2019.
  19. ↑ James C. McKinley, Jr., “Dinkins Retains Financing From Groups of 4 Years Ago,” New York Times, October 29, 1993.
  20. ↑ “Questar Oks 18c dividend and announces 4 directors,” Deseret News , May 22, 2002.
  21. ↑ “QEP Resources’ History,” Archived 2013-08-08 at the Wayback Machine qepres.com. Accessed June 17, 2013.
  22. 1 2 Profile: James Harmon, Forbes . Accessed June 12, 2013.
  23. ↑ Kathryn Harris, “Warner Reportedly Will Acquire Chappell: $200-Million Deal Would Merge 2 of 3 Biggest U.S. Music Publishers,” Los Angeles Times , May 12, 1987.
  24. ↑ William Glaberson, “Investor Group to Provide For Expansion of El Diario,” New York Times, March 3, 1995.
  25. ↑ Alan Mirabella, “Latin Media Group Is Ready to Tango,” Crain's New York Business , April 17, 1995.
  26. ↑ “Latino-Oriented Entravision Buys 17 Radio Stations, Paper,” Los Angeles Times, December 23, 1999.
  27. ↑ Harmon & Co. Archived 2013-06-30 at the Wayback Machine Accessed June 27, 2013.
  28. ↑ “Former U.S. Export-Import Bank Head to Chair Corporate Council on Africa,” Africa News Service, January 23, 2002.
  29. ↑ Commission on Capital Flows to Africa, A Ten-Year Strategy for Increasing Capital Flows to Africa, June 2003.
  30. ↑ James Winpenny, Report of the World Panel on Financing Water Infrastructure, Financing Water For All, March 2003.
  31. ↑ “President Names James A. Harmon to Head the Export-Import Bank of the United States,” Archived 2001-07-26 at the Wayback Machine White House Press Release, May 6, 1997.
  32. ↑ “Harmon Family Professorship Dedicated,” brown.edu, April 2009.
  33. ↑ “Kodak’s Carp, Investment Banker Harmon and Former Transportation Secretary Slater,” Archived 2013-06-29 at archive.today africare.org, July 6, 2011.
  34. ↑ G20 Communique [ permanent dead link ], boell.org, February 19, 2011.
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