Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Pfizer’s Political CEO

It was a classic success story: The son of a doctor graduated with honors from a top university, attended one of the country’s best law schools, and landed a job clerking for the Supreme Court. He switched to the private sector and rose gracefully to the top of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical company. He then helped to broker a deal between a powerful industry group and an unassailably popular president to enact legislation that would touch the life of every American.
And then everything went wrong.
Jeff Kindler, former CEO of Pfizer, resigned suddenly in December 2010 under pressure from his board. Subsequently, details about his backroom negotiations with the Obama administration came to light, raising questions about whether he was pursuing his industry’s interests or his own political ambitions. Without Kindler’s clout in the pharmaceutical world, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act might never have passed. But the deal he cut ended up hurting his industry.
Kindler clerked for Justice William J. Brennan after graduating from Harvard Law School. From there, he took an unorthodox path to corporate leadership, becoming the general counsel of McDonald’s before rising to the presidency of McDonald’s Partner Brands. Eventually, Pfizer spotted Kindler and wooed him with an offer to supervise more than 300 lawyers as general counsel — and the possibility of rising higher still. Within five years, Kindler was CEO of Pfizer and the most influential board member of PhRMA, the pharmaceutical industry’s powerful trade association. He was also a committed Democrat, which made him an invaluable resource for the Obama administration as it began the now-infamous negotiations that led up to the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

Read more: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/304639/pfizer-s-political-ceo-betsy-woodruff

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