Volodymyr Zelensky’s most vital speech while in Latest York last week was not at the UN, but in a personal room a couple of blocks away.
“Investing in Ukraine must be good for you and good for us. I understand capitalism,” the Ukrainian president told what was described to me as a “star-struck” group of billionaire financiers, plus Henry Kissinger, Latest England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and celebrity chef José Andrés.
Zelensky, of course, was in town to handle the United Nations, the largely irrelevant multinational body that opens its General Assembly annually in September here in Latest York City. He’s a rock star on the global stage, having fought the evil of Vlad Putin to a standstill in his two-year battle to maintain Ukraine from falling under the dictator’s thumb.
Yet his UN speech was oddly anodyne. He railed about Russia’s aggression and his nation’s need for continued assistance. He attacked the UN as feckless; it gives dictatorships like Russia a seat at the table, which is why it’s powerless to stop the war.
Tell us something we don’t already know.
For some real motion, you needed to have been a fly on the wall a pair of days afterward Thursday, around mid-afternoon. Under the guise of secrecy, at Ukraine’s Everlasting Mission, Zelensky sat down with some of the richest men in the world. While Zelensky needs US government aid to maintain fighting the good fight against Putin (he flew to DC later that night), he needs the dudes in that room — and their money — to be sure Ukraine survives and thrives once the fighting stops.
I wasn’t that fly, but my sources were, which is why the meeting arranged by megabank JP Morgan turned out to be not so secret. Mary Erdoes, head of wealth management, and her No. 2, Vince La Padula, got here up with the idea to host Zelensky and the moneymen while the UN was in session. Each know the country from the ground up, literally. Erdoes has donated her time to constructing orphanages in the western part of the country; La Padula in February dodged bombs as he toured Kyiv.
Private investment
They’ve been hired as the country’s financial advisers, and their job is to lift a personal investment fund to rebuild Ukraine with the goal of getting some money from the people in that room.
And you already know there was quite a bit of money a minimum of interested in rolling the dice on Ukraine when the “poorest” billionaire is price just $2.1 billion. That might be Dan Lubetzky, who runs the company that created KIND nutrition bars.
He was seated near former mayor and financial data entrepreneur Mike Bloomberg, price an estimated $96 billion; Ken Griffin of the Citadel investment empire, price around $35 billion; Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, who comes in at around $20 billion; the aforementioned Kraft at $11 billion; Jonathan Gray, the president of private equity powerhouse Blackstone and likely successor to Stephen Schwarzman, price around $7 billion; Barry Sternlicht, of Starwood Capital with $4 billion in bank, and Bill Ackman, the high-profile hedge fund operator price nearly $3.6 billion.
Henry Kissinger was invited not for his money but because he’s Henry Kissinger, of course. Kraft is a JP Morgan client and has also been involved in humanitarian efforts in the country, as is Chef Andrés. Larry Fink, the head of BlackRock, didn’t make the cut, but I’m told he sent one other BlackRock exec to attend. The CEO of the world’s largest money management firm had his own private one-on-one with Zelensky to work out the country’s private-money dilemma.
Bloomberg was most engaged, peppering Zelensky with questions on the economy, and the historical significance of standing as much as dictators. Zelensky apparently said all the right stuff in making his money pitch — and his pitch to maintain fighting. He compared negotiating with Putin to Europe’s initial ill-fated negotiations with Hitler. He also said he understands capitalism, which doesn’t really work without the rule of law. Private capital demands a return, which will likely be elusive if it’s siphoned off by an unlimited system of corruption.
Ukraine isn’t Russia, of course. Putin runs the place like a Mafia don, business leaders run under his protection and kick up money to their Godfather. After they don’t, they often die. Ukraine’s brand of crony capitalism is a bit softer. Again, it’s not as bad as the Russian variety, nevertheless it’s also a no go for significant private investment.
The corruption query, I’m told, was raised by Ackman, whose hedge fund often sniffs out investment fraud, and Zelensky’s more complete answer should give the moneymen pause before opening their checkbook. In answering, he used a Ukrainian word for “wall,” which an aide later translated for him and the group into English. As Zelensky described it, based on the system of government in the country there was a limit — or a “wall,” so to talk — blocking him from doing the whole lot he desired to do on the corruption problem.
My sources say the comment didn’t generate a direct response. Nonetheless, nobody made a firm monetary commitment. The chat then shifted to Zelensky’s more compelling pitch: The war will end someday, and Ukraine has an informed workforce, and a resilient people. The western part of the country is peaceful and open for business.
It’s hard not to tug for Zelensky; everyone in that room, I’m told, would really like to play a job in rebuilding the country. I’m also told that first, he has to take down that wall.