Sly As A Fox: How Wilbur Ross Slipped Out Of Scandal And Back Into Business
Nicolas Ortega for Forbes
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Fresh off a years-long ethics investigation, Trump’s commerce secretary is back in business with a new SPAC which he created while still in office.
ON JANUARY 19, 2021, while still serving as the U.S. secretary of commerce, Wilbur Ross set up a new company in the Cayman Islands. The business had no operations, but it did have big plans. It was a special purpose acquisition company, or a SPAC, which would allow Ross to raise more than $300 million from investors.
Marquette Chester Joins Xponance to Lead Alternatives Business
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Xponance, Inc., a multi-strategy investment firm, announced today that it will expand its business to include alternative capabilities for institutional and other qualified investors. The firm has hired industry veteran Marquette Chester as Senior Managing Director to lead this effort. The alternatives platform will draw upon parent company Xponance’s 25-year track record investing with Diverse, Emerging, and/or Women-Owned Business Enterprises, and will initially focus on General Partnership (GP) staking and seeding interests in a select group of diverse, emerging and women-owned alternative managers.
With this expansion, we will provide important direct capital solutions to emerging and diverse alternative managers, as investor interest in the space grows. We are delighted that Marquette is joining our team – he has the experience and industry presence to lead this evolution.
3 Feb 2021
What will be a downgrade for the United States economy should be an upgrade for the Rhode Island economy: the installation of Democrat Gov. Gina Raimondo as President Joe Biden’s commerce secretary. Raimondo’s confirmation is expected any day, possibly as soon as this week.
As commerce secretary, Raimondo’s confirmation can be described as nothing less than a stark downgrade for America when compared with the most recent secretary, Wilbur Ross, who from 2017–2020 led America to the greatest economic performance of any country in history.
With limited private sector experience as a venture capitalist, Raimondo has virtually no “hands-on” experience helping small businesses and their workers. Much of her career has been in government and politics, where she has become known as a Democrat hyper-partisan who seeks to push the boundaries of the ideological left wing of her party’s base.
Sponsored
Wilbur Ross, who served as Secretary of Commerce under former President Donald Trump, has created a special purpose acquisition company that aims to profit from the next industrial revolution.
The SPAC, Ross Acquisition Corp. II, disclosed in a regulatory filing Tuesday that Larry Kudlow, who served as Trump’s director of the National Economic Council, is part of its management team. Ross is the blank-check company’s president, chairman and chief executive officer, while Kudlow is one of three board directors, the filing shows.
Ross Acquisition Corp. II plans to raise $300 million through an initial public offering to help finance an acquisition of a company in a sector undergoing transformation, such as electric or autonomous cars, energy storage, automated manufacturing, or space traffic management, according to the filing.
As Donald Trump’s divisive presidency draws to a close, questions have arisen as to the future plans of his administration, and whether they will face difficulties securing positions outside the White House. The Onion provides analysis of what the Trump administration members will do next.