George Shultz | |
|---|---|
 Shultz in the 1980s | |
| 60th United States Secretary of State | |
| In office July 16, 1982 – January 20, 1989 | |
| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Deputy | |
| Preceded by | Alexander Haig |
| Succeeded by | James Baker |
| 62nd United States Secretary of the Treasury | |
| In office June 12, 1972 – May 8, 1974 | |
| President | Richard Nixon |
| Preceded by | John Connally |
| Succeeded by | William E. Simon |
| 19th Director of the Office of Management and Budget | |
| In office July 1, 1970 – June 11, 1972 | |
| President | Richard Nixon |
| Preceded by | Bob Mayo (Bureau of the Budget) |
| Succeeded by | Caspar Weinberger |
| 11th United States Secretary of Labor | |
| In office January 22, 1969 – July 1, 1970 | |
| President | Richard Nixon |
| Preceded by | W. Willard Wirtz |
| Succeeded by | James Day Hodgson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | George Pratt Shultz December 13, 1920 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | February 6, 2021 (aged 100) Stanford, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Dawes Cemetery, Cummington, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouses |
|
| Children | 5 |
| Education | |
| Awards | Presidential Medal of Freedom (1989) |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service | United States Marine Corps |
| Years of service | 1942–1945 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Battles/wars |
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George Pratt Shultz (/ʃʊlts/ SHUULTS; December 13, 1920 – February 6, 2021) was an American economist, businessman, diplomat and statesman. He served in various positions under two different Republican presidents and is one of the only two persons to have held four different Cabinet-level posts, the other being Elliot Richardson.[1] Shultz played a major role in shaping the foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration, and conservative foreign policy thought thereafter.
Born in New York City, he graduated from Princeton University before serving in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. After the war, Shultz earned a PhD in industrial economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He taught at MIT from 1948 to 1957, taking a leave of absence in 1955 to take a position on President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Council of Economic Advisers. After serving as dean of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, he accepted President Richard Nixon's appointment as United States Secretary of Labor. In that position, he imposed the Philadelphia Plan on construction contractors who refused to accept black members, marking the first use of racial quotas by the federal government. In 1970, he became the first director of the Office of Management and Budget, and he served in that position until his appointment as United States Secretary of the Treasury in 1972. In that role, Shultz supported the Nixon shock, which sought to revive the ailing economy in part by abolishing the gold standard, and presided over the end of the Bretton Woods system.
Shultz left the Nixon administration in 1974 to become an executive at Bechtel. After becoming president and director of that company, he accepted President Ronald Reagan's offer to serve as United States secretary of state. He held that office from 1982 to 1989. Shultz pushed for Reagan to establish relations with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, which led to a thaw between the United States and the Soviet Union. He opposed the U.S. aid to Contras trying to overthrow the Sandinistas by using funds from an illegal sale of weapons to Iran. This aid led to the Iran–Contra affair.
Shultz retired from public office in 1989 but remained active in business and politics. He had already been an executive of the Bechtel Group, an engineering and services company, from 1974 to 1982. Shultz served as an informal adviser to George W. Bush and helped formulate the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war. He served on the Global Commission on Drug Policy, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Economic Recovery Council, and on the boards of Bechtel and the Charles Schwab Corporation.
Beginning in 2013, Shultz advocated for a revenue-neutral carbon tax as the most economically sound means of mitigating anthropogenic climate change.[2][3][4][5][6] He was a member of the Hoover Institution, the Institute for International Economics, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and other groups. He was also a prominent and hands-on board member of Theranos, which defrauded more than $700 million from its investors before it collapsed.[7] His grandson Tyler Shultz worked at the company before becoming a whistleblower about the fraudulent technology.[8][9]
- ^ "George P. Shultz". Hoover Institution. Archived from the original on December 11, 2019. Retrieved December 13, 2019.
- ^ Shultz, George; Becker, Gary (April 7, 2013). "Why We Support a Revenue-Neutral Carbon Tax: Coupled with the elimination of costly energy subsidies, it would encourage competition". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on December 28, 2016. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
- ^ Dizikes, Peter (October 1, 2014). "George Shultz: "Climate is changing," and we need more action; Former secretary of state – and former MIT professor – urges progress on multiple fronts". MIT News. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Archived from the original on December 10, 2015. Retrieved December 10, 2015.
- ^ Shultz, George (March 13, 2015). "A Reagan approach to climate change". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 13, 2017. Retrieved December 21, 2016.
- ^ Schwartz, John (February 7, 2017). "'A Conservative Climate Solution': Republican Group Calls for Carbon Tax". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 2, 2019. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
The group, led by former secretary of state James A. Baker III, with former secretary of state George P. Shultz and Henry M. Paulson Jr., a former secretary of the Treasury, says that taxing carbon pollution produced by burning fossil fuels is "a conservative climate solution" based on free-market principles.
- ^ "The conservative case for carbon dividends" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 21, 2018. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
- ^ Carreyrou, John (2018). Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup. New York City: Knopf Doubleday. ISBN 978-1-5247-3166-3. Archived from the original on February 8, 2021. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
- ^ Carreyrou, John (November 18, 2016). "Theranos Whistleblower Shook the Company—and His Family". The Wall Street Journal.
- ^ Randazzo, Sarah (November 29, 2021). "Holmes Testifies That Senior Lab Scientist Addressed Tyler Shultz's Concerns". The Wall Street Journal.