Difference between revisions of "Ron Bloom"

Revision as of 19:18, November 11, 2009

Ron Bloom took over as head of the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry on July 13, 2009, replacing former "Car Czar" Steven Rattner.^[1][2] He reports to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council head Larry Summers. Bloom is a leader of the White House task force overseeing auto company bailouts, and worked on the restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler LLC, and has negotiated restructuring deals for more than 50 companies, receiving major concessions from unions and companies.

Ron Bloom was raised in New York, and he comes from a proud union family; his mother was a schoolteacher and he had an aunt who was a leader in the teachers' union.^[3] After working for the Service Employees International Union, Bloom earned an MBA from Harvard University^[2]

Previous experience

From 1985 to 1990, Ron Bloom worked as an investment banker with Lazard Freres & Co., which specializes in mergers, acquisitions and corporate restructuring, before co-founding the investment-banking firm Keilin and Bloom.^[2] As a banker, he played a major role in deals between airlines and unions in the early 1990's, facilitating employee givebacks in exchange for stock.^[3] He was special assistant to president of the United Steelworkers union from February 1996 to 2009. In the New York Times on February 16, 2009, Michelle Galanter Applebaum, a longtime steel industry analyst, described Ron Bloom as "[A] passionate, committed guy, totally idealistic."^[3]

In 2003, Bloom helped put together a union contract with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., a move that could shed light on how he might approach the car industry.

References