Robert E. Grady
Encyclopedia
Robert E. Grady is an American venture capital
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
ist and investment banker
Investment banking
An investment bank is a financial institution that assists individuals, corporations and governments in raising capital by underwriting and/or acting as the client's agent in the issuance of securities...
, and a senior-level public official. Currently, he is managing director at Cheyenne Capital, Chairman of the State of New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
Council of Economic Advisors for Governor Christopher J. Christie, and Chairman of New Jersey's State Investment Council, which oversees the state's $72 billion pension fund. Grady also serves as a director of multiple public and private companies; serves on the National Commission on Energy Policy
Energy policy
Energy policy is the manner in which a given entity has decided to address issues of energy development including energy production, distribution and consumption...
; is a member of the Board of Governors of the Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School
Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School
The Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School is a private, higher-education institution that offers doctoral studies in policy analysis and practical experience working on RAND research projects to solve current public policy problems. Its campus is co-located with the RAND Corporation, a...
, the International Advisory Board of The Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
Center for Environmental Economics, and the Council on Foreign Relations
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
; is a Visiting Fellow at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
’s Hoover Institution
Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is a public policy think tank and library founded in 1919 by then future U.S. president, Herbert Hoover, an early alumnus of Stanford....
; and is a financial and policy adviser to numerous political campaigns and government officials of national import.
Business career
Grady is currently a Managing Director at Cheyenne Capital, a $370 million private equity firm. For the decade prior to joining Cheyenne Capital, he was a prominent partner at the Carlyle GroupCarlyle Group
The Carlyle Group is an American-based global asset management firm, specializing in private equity, based in Washington, D.C. The Carlyle Group operates in four business areas: corporate private equity, real assets, market strategies and fund-of-funds, through its AlpInvest subsidiary...
, the world’s second largest private equity firm., where he served as Managing Director, member of the Management Committee, and head of Venture and Growth Capital. During his tenure at Carlyle, Grady also served for six years as a director and as Chairman (2006 to 2007) of the National Venture Capital Association
National Venture Capital Association
The National Venture Capital Association is the leading trade association representing the venture capital industry in the U.S. The NVCA represents the venture industry in public policy debates in Washington, DC, and promotes high professional standards, professional development, and interaction...
(“NVCA”), which represents more than 400 U.S. venture capital firms. He was a director of several Carlyle companies, including Blackboard Inc.
Blackboard Inc.
Blackboard Inc. is an enterprise software company with its corporate headquarters in Washington, D.C. and is primarily known as a developer of education software, in particular learning management systems. Blackboard was founded by CEO Michael Chasen and chairman Matthew Pittinsky in 1997 and...
, AuthenTec, Wall Street Institute
Wall Street Institute
Wall Street Institute is among the largest providersof English language instruction to adults and corporate clients around the world. WSI was established in 1972 in Italy by Italian Luigi Tiziano Peccenini...
, Ingenio, USBX, Panasas
Panasas
Panasas, Inc., is a private, multinational computer storage company based in Sunnyvale, California. It specializes in high-performance scale-out network-attached storage optimized for Linux clusters.- History :...
, Secure Elements, and others.
In the 1990s, Grady was a Managing Director and member of the Management Committee at Robertson Stephens
Robertson Stephens
Robertson Stephens was a San Francisco-based boutique investment bank that focused on primarily on technology companies...
, an investment bank focused on growth companies
Growth stock
In finance, a growth stock is a stockof a company that generates substantial and sustainable positive cash flow and whose revenues and earnings are expected to increase at a faster rate than the average company within the same industry...
in technology and healthcare, that was acquired by Bank of America
Bank of America
Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...
and subsequently by BankBoston
BankBoston
BankBoston was a bank based in Boston, Massachusetts, which was created by the 1996 merger of Bank of Boston and BayBank. Bank of Boston had a venerable history dating back to 1784, but the merged BankBoston was short-lived, being acquired by Fleet Bank in 1999...
.
Today, Grady is a director of companies Maxim Integrated Products
Maxim Integrated Products
Maxim Integrated Products is a publicly traded company that designs, manufactures, and sells analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products. Maxim develops integrated circuits for the industrial, communications, consumer, and computing markets....
, one of the world’s leading producers of analog semiconductors; Stifel Financial
Stifel Nicolaus
Stifel Nicolaus and Company, Inc., incorporated in 1923, is the largest subsidiary of Stifel Financial Corporation and is a member of Securities Investor Protection Corporation . The parent company has several subsidiaries....
, a major broker
Broker
A broker is a party that arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller, and gets a commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal...
age and asset management
Investment management
Investment management is the professional management of various securities and assets in order to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of the investors...
firm which acquired Thomas Weisel Partners Group
Thomas Weisel Partners
Thomas Weisel Partners Group, Inc. , also known as TWP or Weisel, is a U.S. growth focused investment banking firm based in San Francisco, California....
in 2010; Eleutian Technology, a provider of online English language training; eScreen, which provides instant drug testing products and services; Symbio, a provider of outsourced software development; and Viator, an online travel company.
Personal Background
Robert Grady grew up in Livingston, New JerseyLivingston, New Jersey
Livingston is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township population was 29,366.Livingston was incorporated as a township by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 5, 1813, from portions of Caldwell Township and Springfield...
and graduated with honors from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
where he was an editor of The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson, the daily student newspaper of Harvard University, was founded in 1873. It is the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates...
and a student leader in the movement to get Harvard to divest
Divestment
In finance and economics, divestment or divestiture is the reduction of some kind of asset for either financial or ethical objectives or sale of an existing business by a firm...
from apartheid-era South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. Grady continued his advocacy of the divestment cause in advising the former Governor of New Jersey, Thomas Kean
Thomas Kean
Thomas Howard Kean is an American Republican Party politician, who served as the 48th Governor of New Jersey from 1982 to 1990. Kean is best known globally, however, for his 2002 appointment as Chairman of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, widely known as the...
, to sign a bill requiring New Jersey’s pension fund to divest stocks of companies doing business in South Africa. This led the New York Times, in a profile of the then-27 year old speechwriter
Speechwriter
A speechwriter is a person who is hired to prepare and write speeches that will be delivered by another person. Speechwriters are used by many senior-level elected officials and executives in the government and private sectors.-Skills and training:...
, to comment that Grady was a “wordsmith who drew from his own deep well” in crafting a speech “ringing with conviction” that not only echoed Kean’s sentiments but represented his own “declaration of faith” on the issue of divestment. Grady earned a Master of Business Administration
Master of Business Administration
The Master of Business Administration is a :master's degree in business administration, which attracts people from a wide range of academic disciplines. The MBA designation originated in the United States, emerging from the late 19th century as the country industrialized and companies sought out...
from the Stanford Graduate School of Business
Stanford Graduate School of Business
The Stanford Graduate School of Business is one of the professional schools of Stanford University, in Stanford, California and is broadly regarded as one of the best business schools in the world.The Stanford GSB offers a general management Master of Business Administration degree, the Sloan...
, where he later served as a faculty member and lecturer on public management from 1994-2004. A venture capital industry leader and growth company expert, he has published numerous articles and appeared in the Wall Street Journal, TIME magazine
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
and others. He is described in Jeffrey Birnbaum
Jeffrey Birnbaum
Jeffrey H. Birnbaum is an American journalist and television commentator. He previously worked for the Washington Post and Washington Times. He also regularly appears as a political analyst for the Fox News Channel and long appeared as a regular panelist on Washington Week...
’s The Money Men as a “highly successful” investment banker. Grady is a frequent and popular commentator, appearing on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
’s Nightline
Nightline
Nightline, or ABC News Nightline is a late-night news program broadcast by ABC in the United States, and has a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. It airs weeknights, usually for 31 minutes. Created by Roone Arledge, the program featured Ted Koppel as its main...
, CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
’s Squawk Box
Squawk Box
Squawk Box is a business news television program which airs at breakfast time on the CNBC network. The program is currently co-hosted by Joe Kernen, Rebecca Quick and Andrew Ross Sorkin. Since debuting in 1995, the show has spawned a number of versions across CNBC's international channels, many of...
and Street Signs, the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
Evening News
CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. The network has broadcast this program since 1948, and has used the CBS Evening News title since 1963....
, CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
’s Crossfire
Crossfire (TV series)
Crossfire was a current events debate television program that aired from 1982 to 2005 on CNN. Its format was designed to present and challenge the opinions of a politically liberal pundit and a conservative pundit.-Format:...
and Moneyline
Lou Dobbs Tonight
Lou Dobbs Tonight is an American editorial commentary and discussion program hosted by Lou Dobbs, previously broadcast on CNN and currently on Fox Business Network. The hour-long show aired live on evenings every weekday, and was replayed in the overnight/early morning hours. It covered the major...
, PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
, Fox Business News
Fox Business Network
Fox Business Network is an American cable news and satellite news television channel that began broadcasting on October 15, 2007. It is owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation...
and other major media outlets. as a spokesman for growth-oriented economic policies, market-based environmental regulation
Environmental law
Environmental law is a complex and interlocking body of treaties, conventions, statutes, regulations, and common law that operates to regulate the interaction of humanity and the natural environment, toward the purpose of reducing the impacts of human activity...
, and generally conservative
Fiscal conservatism
Fiscal conservatism is a political term used to describe a fiscal policy that advocates avoiding deficit spending. Fiscal conservatives often consider reduction of overall government spending and national debt as well as ensuring balanced budget of paramount importance...
fiscal positions.
In the non-profit world, Grady is a trustee of the Jackson Hole Land Trust in Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
and the Resources First Foundation. He was a long-time trustee of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), and was chairman of the board of Resources for the Future
Resources for the Future
Resources for the Future is a nonprofit organization that conducts independent research into environmental, energy, and natural resource issues, primarily via economics and other social sciences. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., RFF performs research around the world...
(“RFF”).
Political Background
Grady began his career as legislative assistantLegislative assistant
A legislative assistant is a legislative staffer who works for a legislator by monitoring pending legislation, conducting research, drafting legislation, giving advice and counsel, and making recommendations....
and then chief of staff
Chief of Staff
The title, chief of staff, identifies the leader of a complex organization, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a Principal Staff Officer , who is the coordinator of the supporting staff or a primary aide to an important individual, such as a president.In general, a chief of...
for the late New Jersey Congresswoman Millicent Fenwick
Millicent Fenwick
Millicent Hammond Fenwick was an American fashion editor, politician and diplomat. A four-term Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey, she entered politics late in life and was renowned for her energy and colorful enthusiasm...
. He went on to serve as communications director
Director of Communications
Director of communications is a position in both the private and public sectors. A director of communications is responsible for managing and directing an organization's internal and external communications...
for former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean
Thomas Kean
Thomas Howard Kean is an American Republican Party politician, who served as the 48th Governor of New Jersey from 1982 to 1990. Kean is best known globally, however, for his 2002 appointment as Chairman of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, widely known as the...
. Grady was a speechwriter and policy adviser for George H.W. Bush during the 1988 Presidential campaign
United States presidential election, 1988
The United States presidential election of 1988 featured no incumbent president, as President Ronald Reagan was unable to seek re-election after serving the maximum two terms allowed by the Twenty-second Amendment. Reagan's Vice President, George H. W. Bush, won the Republican nomination, while the...
, and served in the White House for Bush as Associate Director of the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) for Natural Resources, Energy and Science (1989–1991); Executive Associate Director of OMB; and as Deputy Assistant to the President (1991–1993). He was widely known for advising Bush in the crafting of the Clean Air Act
Clean Air Act (United States)
The Clean Air Act is a United States federal law enacted by Congress, and signed by President Richard Nixon on December 31, 1970 to control air pollution on a national level. It requires the Environmental Protection Agency to develop and enforce regulations to protect the general public from...
Amendments of 1990, and helping to shepherd that legislation through Congress
101st United States Congress
The One Hundred First United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1989 to January 3, 1991, during the first two...
.
Since then, Grady has served as a part-time adviser to a number of political figures. In 2001, President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
appointed Grady to be a member of the Advisory Committee on Trade and Policy Negotiations (ACTPN) and he was appointed by the Administrator of NASA during the George W. Bush administration to be a member of the NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
Advisory Council’s Task Force on the cost and management of the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
.
Noted early on by Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
as “one of three thirty-somethings to watch” (along with Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
and Robert Zoellick
Robert Zoellick
Robert Bruce Zoellick is the eleventh president of the World Bank, a position he has held since July 1, 2007. He was previously a managing director of Goldman Sachs, United States Deputy Secretary of State and U.S. Trade Representative, from February 7, 2001 until February 22, 2005.President...
) and as OMB Director Richard Darman
Richard Darman
Richard Gordon Darman , known as Dick Darman, was an American economist and businessman who served under five U.S. presidents but is best remembered as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget during the administration of George H. W...
’s “polished No. 2” in George H.W. Bush’s White House, Grady has emerged in recent years as an adviser to various leading Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
candidates and public officials. He served as co-chairman of George W. Bush’s campaign in California in both 2000 and 2004, and as an architect of Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
’s environmental and economic policies during the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election and member of Schwarzenegger’s transition team. Most recently, Grady has served as co-chairman and member of the Transition Task Force on Budget and Taxes for Governor Chris Christie in New Jersey, who has been hailed in conservative editorial pages such as The Weekly Standard
The Weekly Standard
The Weekly Standard is an American neoconservative opinion magazine published 48 times per year. Its founding publisher, News Corporation, debuted the title September 18, 1995. Currently edited by founder William Kristol and Fred Barnes, the Standard has been described as a "redoubt of...
and the Wall Street Journal for his budget cuts. Consequently, Grady currently wields “lots of economic clout” in leading the Governor’s Council on Economic Advisors at a time when “all eyes are on New Jersey.” Press reports have also cited Grady as the author of Governor Christie’s Inaugural Address and his budget addresses to Joint Sessions of the New Jersey Legislature. He has also been increasingly active in Wyoming, as a frequent speaker and as Chairman of one of Wyoming's fastest growing companies, Eleutian Technology,.