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Per your guidance we have been thinking of a speaker for your dinner that could effectively talk about both politics and finance/economics. After thinking about it, we think former Sen. Ted Kaufman would be an ideal speaker.

As you may know, Sen. Kaufman (D-DE), was appointed Senator to fill VP Biden's seat in 2008 and served as then Senator Biden's Chief of Staff for nineteen years. Currently, he is serving as the Chairman of the Congressional Oversight Board for TARP, replacing Elizabeth Warren when she left to set up the Consumer Financial Protection Board. His full bio is below.

Sen. Kaufman has an interesting perspective on the current, sometimes dis-functional "state of the Senate" from his service as both a staff member and a Senator, which is particularly relevant given the current Bi-Partisan divide in Congress. He also can give a great take on TARP, Financial Regulatory Reform and other issues that should be of interest to your attendees.

Sen. Kaufman charges $10K a speech. Take a look at his bio and let us know your thoughts. He's obviously someone we know well and wouldn't recommend him if we didn't think your investors would find him interesting.

Let us know.

Best, Eric

Bio:


U.S. Senator Ted Kaufman (D-DE) was sworn into office on January 16, 2009 after being appointed by then-Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner to serve for two years until a special election to replace former Delaware Sen. Joe Biden. Kaufman, 70, is no stranger to Washington. He spent 19 years as Biden’s chief of staff, before being appointed to the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the independent entity that handles U.S. government international broadcasting, including Voice of America. Since 1991, Ted has taught courses in the law school, business school and public policy program of his alma mater, Duke University. From 1995 to 1999 he was Co-Chair of the Duke Law School Center for the Study of the Congress.

Since arriving in the Senate, Kaufman, a member of the Judiciary Committee, introduced with Sens. Leahy and Grassley the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act, known as FERA, which authorized additional resources to federal prosecutors to combat financial fraud. That bill was signed into law by President Obama in May. He recently introduced similar legislation to tackle fraud in both private and government health insurance – the Health Care Fraud Enforcement Act. And he has pushed the Securities and Exchange Commission to address abusive short selling, as well as speed up its review of high-frequency trading and other market structure issues.

As a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, he has been active in the Afghanistan debate, visiting the country, as well as Pakistan and Iraq twice last year.

Kaufman was born on March 15, 1939, in Philadelphia, PA, to Helen Carroll and Manuel Kaufman.

He graduated from Duke University with a BS degree in mechanical engineering, and then earned an MBA degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Kaufman moved to Delaware in 1966 to work for the DuPont Company. It was during this time that he first became involved in Delaware politics, working on various campaigns.

In 1972, Kaufman joined Joe Biden’s long-shot U.S. Senate campaign on a volunteer basis. After Biden's surprise victory in 1973, he took a one-year leave of absence from DuPont to organize and head Senator Biden's Delaware office. In 1976 he became Biden's Chief of Staff/Administrative Assistant and served until 1995.

Since 1991, Kaufman has taught a course on "The Congress" as a Senior Lecturing Fellow at the Duke Law School for Law and Sanford Public Policy students. For over 10 years he also taught a course entitled "Government, Business, and Public Policy in the Global Economy" for students from the Duke Law School and Duke's Fuqua Graduate School of Business.

From 1995 to 1999 he was Co-Chair of the Duke Law School Center for the Study of the Congress.

From 1995 until 2008, Kaufman was a Board member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which is the independent, autonomous, federal entity responsible for all U.S. government and government sponsored non-military international broadcasting. One of Kaufman's primary interests while on the BBG was expanding the freedom of the press around the world, a battle he will continue in the Senate. He was appointed to the BBG by the Presidents Clinton and Bush and was confirmed by the US Senate for four terms.

Since leaving the Senate, Kaufman has remained a close friend of Vice President Joe Biden and has advised him on every one of his 10 federal campaigns. During the Obama/Biden campaign for President he was head of the VP Office transition planning. After Barack Obama and Joe Biden were elected on November 4, 2008, Kaufman was named co-chair of the Vice Presidential Transition Team and was a member of the Advisory Board of the Obama-Biden Transition Project.

He was a member of the Board of Directors of Children and Families First, WHYY, and the Board of Trustees of Christiana Care.

Kaufman and his wife, Lynne, have been married since 1960 and reside in Wilmington. They have three daughters, Kelly, Murry, and Meg, and 7 grandchildren.


Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC
1010 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Suite 705
Washington, DC 20007
(202) 333-1880
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com
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