As I expected, I did catch some heat from my Democrat friends who think we shouldn’t say anything negative about Hillary because it will damage her chance of defeating Trump if she wins the primaries. I disagree. These issues need to be revealed to Democratic voters now, while they can still vote for someone else in the primaries. People who don’t learn about these issues may vote for the wrong candidate.
In part 2 I summarized my research on the banking and financial corporations that paid the Clintons six-figure speaker fees, and in part 3 I covered the corporations from the healthcare and insurance industries. Today I focus on the technology, communications and media corporations that paid the Clintons six-figures for one-hour speeches between 2013 and 2015.
(c) 2016 Brenda Grantland, Truth and Justice Blog
Information technology companies
Microsoft Corporation
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 3/3/2014 | Microsoft Corporation | Las Vegas, NV | Bill | $225,000 |
Microsoft is an American multinational technology company that develops and sells software, electronics, Xbox video game consoles, and personal computers. Its IPO and rising share values created three billionaires and 12,000 millionaires among its employees. In 2015 its net revenue was $93.58 billion.
For decades Microsoft has been criticized for being a monopoly and for using unfair and anti-competitive tactics to expand its industry domination.
Microsoft has not been averse to engaging in outright anti-competitive practices as needed to assure its dominance of markets, as a string of lawsuits and complaints trailing in its wake can attest to. From his first days in the computer industry back in the 1970s, Bill Gates said repeatedly, “We want to monopolize the software business.”
From MSWord to MSWorld: How Microsoft is Building a Global Monopoly, by Nathan Newman, Project Director, Net Action (1997), quoting Robert X. Cringely. Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can’t Get a Date. HarperBusiness. New York. 1992. As of 1997, Microsoft controlled the operating systems of 94% of the personal computers on the market. It spread its dominance out from there into all aspects of computing, dominating the applications market and using its existing dominance to bolster sales of new products.
The U.S. Justice Department sued Microsoft under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in 1998. After a bench trial in 2000, the judge found Microsoft guilty of several monopolistic practices, and ordered Microsoft broken up – separating the operating system products from other software applications. The court of appeals reversed, holding the normal anti-trust standards cannot be applied to high-tech industries and developing a more permissive rule. In 2001 the Justice Department dropped its request that Microsoft be broken up, and proposed a settlement which did little to curb anti-competitive practices. Nine states refused to agree to the settlement, saying it did not go far enough to prevent future monopolistic practices. A Google search for “Microsoft industry domination” shows the corporation is still being criticized for its monopolistic practices.
Microsoft was also criticized in 2013 for participating in the NSA surveillance program PRISM, but the company denied it, saying it only complied with government orders for specific customer data. It has since called on Congress to enact strong privacy protections.
In the 2014 election cycle, Microsoft spent $2,941,683 in campaign contributions, and another $8,330,000 for lobbying. In 2013 it spent $10,490,000 on lobbying.
Oracle Corporation
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 4/24/2013 | Oracle Corporation | Rancho Mirage, CA | Bill | $300,000 |
| 4/2/2014 | Oracle Corporation | Rancho Mirage, CA | Bill | $300,000 |
| 4/16/2015 | Oracle Corporation | Rancho Mirage, CA | Bill | $360,000 |
Oracle is an American company specializing in developing and marketing database software and hardware systems, and enterprise software. In 2011 it was the second largest computer software company after Microsoft. In 2008 its CEO Larry Ellison was the highest paid CEO in the world. In the 2010s Oracle acquired numerous other IT corporations with prices ranging from the hundreds of millions to billions of dollars.
In 2000 it was criticized for hiring investigators to go through the trash of organizations involved in anti-trust litigation against Microsoft, Oracle’s rival.
In 2002 it marketed its products with the slogan “can’t break it, can’t break in” but weeks after introducing this ad campaign hackers broke into Oracle products a number of times.
In 2004, Attorney General Ashcroft sued Oracle to prevent it from obtaining a multi-billion dollar intelligence contract. When Ashcroft left office he founded the Ashcroft Group, and Oracle hired them in 2005 to help them obtain that contract that Ashcroft had blocked.
In 2010 the U.S. Justice Department sued Oracle under the False Claims Act, alleging Oracle charged the government more than it charged commercial clients. Oracle paid $199.5 million in settlement.
In 2011 the FBI investigated Oracle for allegedly bribing African officials to win business, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
In 2012 the U.S. General Services Administration banned Oracle from using a GSA portal for bidding on GSA contracts.
Before the rollout of Obamacare the state of Oregon hired Oracle to develop the healthcare exchange website. When it tried to launch in 2013, the site failed, and registrations had to be taken manually on paper. In 2014 Oregon discontinued Cover Oregon and went with the federal exchange instead, after discovering it would cost another $78 million to fix the dedicated software, while switching to the federal exchange would cost $5 million.
In the 2014 election cycle, Oracle spent $1,072,017 on campaign contributions and $6,750,000 on lobbying. In 2013 it spent $7,190,000 on lobbying.
Cisco Systems
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 3/21/2013 | Cisco Systems | Kiawah Island, SC | Bill | $225,000 |
| 8/28/2014 | Cisco Systems | Las Vegas, NV | Hillary | $325,000 |
Cisco’s founders were a married couple employed by Stanford University who continued to work on Cisco while employed at Stanford. Cisco’s first product was comprised of exact replicas of Stanford’s Blue Box router and a stolen copy of Stanford’s router software, which they modified to create the Cisco operating system. In 1986 they were discovered and forced to resign. Stanford contemplated but did not initiate criminal charges for the theft. In 1987 Stanford licensed the software to Cisco. In 1990 one of the original principals was fired, and the other resigned in protest, and the two walked away with $170 million. In 1992 Cisco began acquiring other companies involved in Ethernet switching and created products for internet service providers during the initial boom of the internet, and by 1998 Cisco had a monopoly on those products. Other companies Cisco acquired over the years include: NDS ($5 billion), Cerent Corporation ($7 billion), Scientific Atlanta, Linksys, IronPort, Starent Networks, Moto Development Group, Pari Network, Intucell, Cognitive Security, SolveDirect, Ubiquisys, Sourcefire, ThreatGRID, Tail-f Systems, Embrane, OpenDNS, MaintenanceNet, Pawaa, Portcullis Computer Security, and ParStream. Cisco also acquired stakes in: KPMG Consulting ($1 billion), Crescendo Networks, and Tandberg.
At the peak of the dot com bubble in 2000, Cisco was the most valuable company in the world, with $500 billion in total shares. In 2014 it was down to $129 billion, but still one of the world’s most valuable companies.
Cisco has frequently been criticized for efforts to dominate the information technology market, dominating the market for routers in the late 1990s, and now to the latest new concept, the “Internet of Things,” technology which aims to tie cellphones, home appliances and virtually any electronic device to each other and the internet.
In the 2014 election cycle Cisco spent $1,075,456 in campaign contributions. In 2014 it spent $2,350,000 on lobbying, down from $3,090,000 in 2013.
Salesforce.com
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 2/6/2014 | Salesforce.com | Las Vegas, NV | Hillary | $225,500 |
| 10/14/2014 | Salesforce.com | San Francisco, CA | Hillary | $225,500 |
Salesforce is a cloud computing company, with a market capitalization of $45 billion. One of its founders, Marc Benioff, was formerly an Oracle executive.
Salesforce aggressively acquired other companies for prices ranging from a few million to hundreds of millions or even billions: Sendia, Kieden, Kenlet, Koral, Instranet, GroupSwim, Informavores, Jigsaw Data Corp., Sitemasher, Navajo Security, Activa Live Chat, Heroku, Etacts, Dimdim, Manymoon, Radian6, Assistly, Model Metrics, Rypple, Stypi, Buddy Media, ChoicePass, Thinkfuse, BlueTail, GoInstant, Prior Knowledge, EntropySoft, clipboard.com, ExactTarget, EdgeSpring, RelateIQ, Toopher, Tempo, AKTA, and MinHash.
Salesforce was one of the backers of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. In addition to paying the Clintons for speeches, Salesforce donated $55,250 to the Ready for Hillary PAC and spent $610,000 lobbying Congress.
In the 2014 election cycle Salesforce contributed $918,475 in campaign contributions. It spent $440,000 lobbying each year in 2013 and 2014 according to OpenSecrets.org.
SAP Global Marketing, Inc.
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 10/23/2013 | SAP Global Marketing, Inc. | New York, NY | Hillary | $225,000 |
| 11/19/2013 | SAP Global Marketing, Inc. | Beijing, China | Bill | $700,000 |
| 10/23/2014 | SAP Global Marketing, Inc. | New York NY | Bill | $250,000 |
SAP is a multi-national German software corporation specializing in enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations.
SAP began as a spin-off of a contract between Xerox and IBM. Xerox was leaving the computer industry and contracted with IBM to migrate their system to IBM technology. Part of the compensation was that IBM would have the rights to the software they were creating. Five computer engineers working on the project were working on an enterprise-wide system using this software and were told their project was being discontinued. Instead they left IBM and began their own company.
Under Acquisitions, Wikipedia lists 59 companies acquired by SAP Global since 1991; 29 were US corporations. The purchase prices that are listed range from $91 million to $8.3 billion.
CGI Group, Inc.
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 6/4/2013 | CGI Group, Inc. | Montreal, Canada | Bill | $225,000 |
CGI is a Canadian technology company dealing in consulting, systems integration, outsourcing (privatizing of government services), and defense and intelligence contracting. After going public in 1986 it began acquiring other large technology companies, sometimes almost doubling in size. Acquisitions include Bell Sygma, IMRGlobal, American Management Systems, Stanley Inc., and Logica. Clients include private companies and governments.
Systems it has designed include: smart meter monitoring systems, analysis for UK national fraud database, and cloud computing. It was one of several companies that helped build the US health insurance marketplace, which was criticized for problems in the early rollout of Obamacare, and CGI’s contract was not renewed. However by 2014, US Medicare and Medicaid Services awarded other contracts to CGI, the Defense Information Services Agency awarded an $871 million contract, as well as additional contracts with the Coast Guard and Homeland Security.
In the 2014 election cycle, CGI Group contributed $75,000 in campaign contributions. In 2014 it spent $200,000 on lobbying, down from $280,000 in 2013.
ISN Software Inc.
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 4/9/2015 | ISN Software Inc. | Grapevine, TX | Bill | $275,000 |
According to Bloomberg Business. “ISN Software Corporation provides online contractor and supplier management services to support hiring clients to manage their contractors and suppliers in capital-intensive and public sector industries.”
Marketo Inc.
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 4/8/2014 | Marketo Inc. | San Francisco, CA | Hillary | $225,500 |
Marketo makes marketing automation software for businesses, including social media marketing applications. In 2012 it ranked #7 among software companies in the Inc. 500, but its rank dropped to 367 in 2013 and failed to make it into the Inc. 500 in 2014.
Nexenta Systems, Inc.
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 8/28/2014 | Nexenta Systems, Inc. | San Francisco, CA | Hillary | $300,000 |
Nexenta is a multi-national producer of software for data storage and backup. Before Nexenta, the data storage market had been dominated by vendors who sold integrated hardware and software, creating switching barriers for customers and keeping the prices high. Nexenta increased competition by creating software that did not require dedicated hardware. It then partnered with large corporations such as Cisco and Dell to bundle its products with the Cisco and Dell hardware.
Nexenta uses Open Source software in its products, and collaborates with the Open Source community to support free and open source products. When Oracle discontinued OpenSolaris, Nexenta and other companies founded the illumos open source project to replace it.
NSS Labs
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 12/17/2013 | NSS Labs | New York, NY | Bill | $250,000 |
NSS is an independent laboratory providing security product testing and evaluation for technology products.
Telecommunications, internet and wireless
AT&T
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 2/7/2013 | AT&T | Monterey, CA | Bill | $200,000 |
| 11/20/2014 | AT&T | Tucson, AZ | Bill | $225,000 |
AT&T is an American multinational telecommunications company, the largest provider of wired telephone and the second largest provider of mobile phone in the U.S. It also provides subscription broadband television. In 2014 it was the 23rd largest company in the world, and the 18th largest mobile phone operator in the world with 128.6 million mobile phone customers.
AT&T is the poster child for gigantic trusts. American Telephone and Telegraph Company grew from the telephone company founded in 1885 to a virtual monopoly nationwide known as “Ma Bell,” and was famously broken up into 22 companies including 7 regional “Baby Bells” in the 1983 antitrust lawsuit, United States v. AT&T. One of the regional “Baby Bells,” Southwestern Bell Corporation (renamed “SBC” in 1995) purchased former parent AT&T Corporation in 2005, renaming the merged entity AT&T Inc. After further mergers and acquisitions, the company is huge again, and now constitutes 10 of the original 22 companies that were broken off when AT&T was broken up in the 1983 antitrust suit.
In the 2014 election cycle, AT&T contributed $4,274,740 in campaign contributions. In 2014 it spent $14,200,000 on lobbying, down from $15,935,000 in 2013.
Verizon Communications, Inc.
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 5/21/2013 | Verizon Communications, Inc. | Washington, DC | Hillary | $225,000 |
Verizon is a telecommunications and broadband internet company – the largest U.S. wireless service provider as of 2014. Verizon began as Bell Atlantic, one of the original 7 Baby Bells broken off during the AT&T antitrust suit. In 1997 Bell Atlantic merged with another Baby Bell NYNEX. In 2000 Bell Atlantic merged with GTE, which operated phone companies over all the rest of the country that wasn’t already controlled by the Bells, and changed its name to Verizon.
Verizon scandals include denying NARAL Pro-Choice America an access code for texting consumers by reserving the right to block “controversial or unsavory” messages. It backed down from that decision in 2007. In 2010 it paid $77.8 million in FCC penalties and refunds to settle FCC’s charges that it had overcharged 15 million customers for data services. Also in 2010 it blocked access to servers related to Wikileaks.
In 2011, Public Campaign, a non-partisan organization, criticized Verizon for tax avoidance after spending $52.34 on lobbying while collecting $951 in tax rebates after making a profit of $32.5 billion from 2008-2010. The same report said Verizon increased executive pay for its top five paid executives by 167% while laying off 21,308 workers. An SEC filing by Verizon in 2012 said Verizon paid $11.1 billion in taxes (including income, property tax and employment taxes) from 2009-2011 and that most of the drop in employees was from workers taking a voluntary retirement offer.
In 2012 the FCC made Verizon stop charging users added fees for using 4G phones and tablets as Wi-fi hotspots. The settlement included paying $1.25 million to the US Treasury.
In 2013, according to the Guardian, the FBI and U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordered Verizon to provide the NSA with the telephone metadata on all calls originating in the U.S.
Verizon filed a lawsuit in 2010 challenging the FCC net neutrality rules, and in 2014 the D.C. Circuit struck the net neutrality rules down. Also in 2014, the Wall Street Journal reported that Verizon received over 1,000 requests for information about its subscribers by National Security Letters, and all together it received over 320,000 requests from law enforcement for information on U.S. customers.
In 2015 it settled a lawsuit accusing it of overbilling mobile customers for premium text messages, agreeing to pay $90 million.
In the 2014 election cycle, Verizon contributed $3,414,629 in campaign contributions. It spent $13,290,000 on lobbying in 2014 and $13,773,000 in 2013.
Qualcomm Incorporated
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 10/14/2014 | Qualcomm Incorporated | San Diego, CA | Hillary | $335,000 |
Qualcomm is a semiconductor company that designs and markets wireless technology. It is one of the largest manufacturers of processors for smartphones. In 2015 its revenue was $25.3 billion, it had $50.3 billion in assets and employed 33,000.
In 2007 the U.S. International Trade Commission blocked the import of cell phones containing Qualcomm microchips because they allegedly infringed Broadcom patents on software intended to extend battery life during out-of-network calls. When the ITC ruled that Qualcomm had violated the Broadcom patents, Qualcomm had to issue a software patch to get around the ban on import of new phones with Qualcomm chip. Broadcom also sued Qualcomm for patent infringement and during that litigation the judge ruled that Qualcomm had committed misconduct by withholding documents and that Qualcomm employees had lied.
In 2009, South Korea’s antitrust agency fined Qualcomm the equivalent of $270 million US for unfair business practices regarding its chipsets. Qualcomm was abusing its dominant position to charge higher royalties on handset makers that purchased the chips from its competitors while offering rebates to those who purchased from Qualcomm.
In 2012 Qualcomm was investigated under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits bribing foreign officials to gain their business.
In 2014 China’s anti-trust agency said Qualcomm was suspected of using its dominant market position to overcharge customers. In 2015 china fined Qualcomm $975 million for it.
In 2015 the European commission opened two anti-trust investigations against Qualcomm.
In the 2014 election cycle Qualcomm contributed $906,032 in campaign contributions. It spent $5,610,000 on lobbying in 2014 and $7,090,000 in 2013.
Telefonica
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 4/1/2014 | Telefonica | Miami, FL | Bill | $175,000 |
Telefonica is a Spanish telephone and broadband provider with operations in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. It is one of the largest telephone and mobile network providers in the world.
Telefonica has been convicted and fined several times for unfair competition, abuse of dominant position, and anti-trust violations (the fines totaled 900,000 Euros, 18 million Euros, 57 million Euros, and 151.9 million Euros). Two more cases are pending with fines totaling 793 million Euros.
Several Spanish consumer groups have reported that when customers cancel Telefonica’s services, the company delays in cancelling, and then continues to bill after being cancelled.
In 2010 Telefonica announced an intention of charging Google and other search engines for the use of their network.
Business consulting and support industries
This category is very broad, and basically incorporates all of the corporate entities and professionals that help corporations grow into huge Titans of the corporate world – accountants, law firms, CEO membership organizations and trade associations.
Consulting companies
Accenture
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 10/24/2013 | Accenture | New York, NY | Hillary | $225,000 |
Accenture was formerly the business and technology consulting division of giant accounting firm Arthur Anderson, which lost its license to practice accounting in 2002 after being convicted of obstruction of justice for its handling of the books of Enron Corporation, a Texas energy company that was investigated for accounting fraud and went bankrupt in 2002. Arthur Anderson’s conviction was later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court but the firm never recovered its reputation. The former Arthur Anderson firm was sold off in pieces, one of which became Accenture.
Today Accenture is the largest consulting firm in the world by revenue. It is a Fortune 500 Global company. Net revenues in 2015 were $31 billion.
Accenture has also been criticized for incorporating in Bermuda as a tax avoidance device, including criticism by CNN journalist Lou Dobbs.
In the 2014 election cycle, Accenture contributed $880,965 in campaign contributions. It spent $3,120,000 on lobbying in 2014 and $3,230,000 in 2013.
Experian
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 5/5/2014 | Experian | Dallas TX | Bill | $225,000 |
Experian is mostly known as a credit reporting agency, but it is also provides data analytics for businesses to help them target new markets, manage customer relations and collect debt. It has operations in 40 countries, employing 17,000 people. It reported $4.84 billion in revenue for 2014.
In 2005 it settled Federal Trade Commission charges that it had violated terms of a previous settlement, over allegations that it misled customers who signed up for a free credit report, failing to disclose to them that signing up for the free report automatically signed them up for a $79.95 per month credit monitoring program.
In 2012, Experian acquired Court Ventures, a reseller of credit bureau information. Court Ventures sold personal information on hundreds of thousands of Americans to an identity theft ring, which resold the information on identity fraud enabling websites. Court Ventures continued selling the credit reports to the ID theft enabling ring for a year after Experian acquired it.
In 2015 Experian’s servers were hacked, exposing the private information of as many as 15 million people who had applied for Experian credit checks, including customers of T-Mobile.
In the 2014 election cycle, Experian contributed $641,100 in campaign contributions. It spent $1,160,000 on lobbying in 2014 and $1,700,000 in 2013.
ACG Los Angeles Chapter
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 9/18/2013 | ACG Los Angeles Chapter | Beverly Hills, CA | Bill | $300,000 |
The Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) is a non-profit organization that assists corporations with mergers and acquisitions – helping the big corporations grow bigger and more powerful. Its members are corporate executives, bankers, investors and other professionals.
Spencer Stuart
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 6/6/2013 | Spencer Stuart | New York, NY | Hillary | $225,000 |
Spencer Stuart is a privately owned executive search firms – one of the leading executive search firms in the world. In 2009, the Wall Street Journal said it was the US government’s primary source of replacement executives for companies bailed out during the Great Recession. Competitors criticized its dominance in “federally funded recruitment.”
In the 2014 election cycle, it contributed $26,525 in campaign contributions.
Boston Consulting Group, Inc.
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 6/20/2013 | Boston Consulting Group, Inc. | Boston, MA | Hillary | $225,000 |
BCG is a multinational management consulting company, advising over 2/3 of the Fortune 500 companies. It has 82 offices in 46 countries.
In the 2014 election cycle it contributed $75,960 in campaign contributions.
Law firms
Latham & Watkins, LLP
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 3/8/2013 | Latham & Watkins, LLP | New York, NY | Bill | $150,000 |
Latham & Watkins is the world’s highest grossing law firm, with $2.6 billion in annual revenue. It employs 2,000 attorneys.
In the 2014 election cycle Latham & Watkins contributed $467,259 in campaign contributions.
Hogan Lovells US LLP
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 6/20/2014 | Hogan Lovells US LLP | Toronto, Canada | Bill | $225,000 |
Hogan Lovells is a multinational law firm, formed by the merger of Washington D.C. based Hogan & Hartson and London based Lovells in 2010. In 2013 it merged with South African firm Routledge Modise. It now employs about 2,500 lawyers and has 40 offices. In 2013 it was the 11th highest grossing law firm in the world according to Wikipedia, with $1.8 billion in income. It specializes in government regulatory law, litigation, corporate and finance law. It is among the largest lobbying firms in the U.S., servicing $12.4 million in lobbying according to Wikipedia.
Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, LLP
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 9/17/2013 | Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, LLP | Newport Beach, CA | Bill | $225,000 |
| 9/4/2014 | Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, LLP | San Diego, CA | Hillary | $225,500 |
Robbins Geller is a law firm with 10 offices in the U.S., specializing in securities fraud, consumer fraud, shareholder derivative litigation, options backdating litigation, antitrust, shareholder class action suits, corporate takeover litigation and intellectual property, among other things business related litigation.
Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 3/7/2014 | Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP | The Netherlands | Bill | $500,000 |
Kessler Topaz is a firm specializing in a variety of complex litigation in the U.S. and Europe on a contingent basis. The firm has offices in Philadelphia and San Francisco.
Executive membership organizations
Young Presidents’ Organization
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 11/4/2013 | Young Presidents’ Organization | Miami, FL | Bill | $230,000 |
| 2/27/2014 | Young Presidents’ Organization | Los Angeles, CA | Bill | $100,000 |
| 9/9/2014 | Young Presidents’ Organization | New York, NY | Bill | $150,000 |
YPO is an international membership organization of CEOs, numbering 22,000 members in 125 countries. Membership is by invitation only. The member must have become CEO before age 40, of a company meeting minimum employee number and revenue requirements.
HR.com Limited
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 3/31/2015 | HR.com Limited | Irving, TX | Bill | $275,000 |
HR.com is a social networking site for human resources professionals, with 240,000 online members – all HR executives. It is a privately held Canadian company.
Association of Corporate Counsel – Southern California
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 3/4/2014 | Association of Corporate Counsel – Southern California | Los Angeles, CA | Hillary | $225,500 |
ACC is a professional association for attorneys who practice in corporate legal departments. It reportedly has 35,000 members, employed by 10,000 companies, in 85 countries. It has 55 chapters scattered around the world. The Southern California chapter is just one of those chapters.
Society for Human Resource Management
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 6/16/2013 | Society for Human Resource Management | Chicago, IL | Hillary | $285,000 |
SHRM is a membership organization for human resources professionals that lobbies Congress on issues relating to labor law and labor management. Issues it has lobbied on include: factors the EEOC should consider when amending the definition of the term “job applicant” for affirmative action and anti-discrimination record keeping laws (in 2003); aligning with the Dept. of Labor Office of Disability Employment Policy to promote hiring of the disabled; and urging changes to the Family and Medical Leave Act (2008).
In the 2014 election cycle the Society for Human Resource Management contributed $5,500 to political campaigns. It spent $1,899,475 on lobbying in 2014 and $1,674,359 in 2013.
Regional trade associations
Long Island Association
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 10/4/2013 | Long Island Association | Long Island, NY | Hillary | $225,000 |
LIA is a nonprofit trade association promoting business in Long Island, New York. Its members are small and large businesses, universities, hospitals, banking and other companies, together employing 2/3 of Long Island’s work force.
Foreign trade and world affairs
Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 3/18/2014 | Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal | Montreal, Canada | Hillary | $275,000 |
The Board of Trade is a group of merchants who promote trade and development in Montreal.
Canada 2020
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 10/6/2014 | Canada 2020 | Ottawa, Canada | Hillary | $215,500 |
According to its website, “Canada 2020 is Canada’s leading, independent, progressive think-tank working to redefine the role of the federal government for a modern Canada. Founded in 2006, Canada 2020 has spent a decade publishing original research, hosting events, and starting conversations about Canada’s future. Our goal is to build a community of progressive people and ideas that will move and shape governments.”
The Vancouver Board of Trade
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 3/5/2014 | The Vancouver Board of Trade | Vancouver, Canada | Hillary | $275,500 |
The Vancouver Board of Trade is a nonprofit trade association promoting business development “by advocating and influencing public policy, developing business leaders, connecting businesses and presenting thought leaders.… We have the ear of government, businesses from all sectors and of all sizes, and have solid connections with thought leaders and movers-and-shakers.” The website discusses “the Nexus pass that expedites passage between U.S. and Canadian borders” and “bringing many elite speakers to Vancouver, such as Bill Clinton (more than once), Hillary Rodham Clinton.”
An article by Paul Blumenthal and Ryan Grim of Huffington Post, Keystone XL Banks Paid $1.6M For Hillary’s Canadian Speeches, said that the invitation to the Clinton speech presented by the Vancouver Board of Trade showed TD Bank was a presenting sponsor of the event. TD Bank has financial ties to TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline.
Canadian Council of Chief Executives
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 10/7/2013 | Canadian Council of Chief Executives | New York, NY | Bill | $175,000 |
The CCCE, now called the Business Council of Canada, is a membership group of CEOs of 150 major corporations and entrepreneurs. It collectively manages $4.5 trillion (Canadian dollars) in assets, with $850 billion Canadian in combined annual revenue, and employs 1.4 million. Its advocacy includes US and Canada interdependence, NAFTA, taxation, regulatory and environmental policy, and competitiveness.
European Petrochemical Association (EPCA)
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 10/8/2013 | European Petrochemical Association (EPCA) | Berlin, Germany | Bill | $350,000 |
The EPCA website describes the association as a network for the global chemical corporations in Europe, providing “platforms to meet, exchange ideas, transfer knowledge and support learning, and serves as a think tank for its members and its stakeholders.” It has 700 corporate members in 54 countries. Topics at the EPCA meetings include fracking.
Global Alliance of SMEs
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 11/17/2013 | Global Alliance of SMEs | Guangzhou, China | Bill | $500,000 |
An internet search for this organization turned up very little information. It has no Wikipedia listing, but the listing for an Argentine politician, Carlos alfredo Margarinos, says Margarinos served on the board of the Global Alliance of SMEs, and the Wikipedia entry. A Wikipedia entry for E-cantonfair says that organization is a member of the Global Alliance of SMEs. An organization in China has a similar name — Alliance of International SMEs — and it could be that these are different translations of the same Chinese name.
SMEs are “Small and medium-sized enterprises” independent, non-subsidiary firms which employ less than a certain number of employees. The number varies from country to country, but often is 250 employees.
EAT The Stockholm Food Forum AB
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 5/26/2014 | EAT The Stockholm Food Forum AB | Stockholm, Sweden | Bill | $500,000 |
EAT’s website describes it as “an international consortium of government, world leading universities and research institutions, philanthropic foundations, non-government actors and organisations, and companies, which all share the common understanding that it is essential to collectively address the issues of food, health and sustainability across the fields of academia, business, politics and civil society to ultimately be able to feed 9 billion healthy people within safe planetary boundaries.” The organization held its first forum in 2014; speakers included Prince Charles (via satellite link), Bill Clinton and several other European leaders.
World Affairs Council
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 4/8/2014 | World Affairs Council | Portland, OR | Hillary | $250,500 |
| 11/10/2014 | World Affairs Council | Los Angeles, CA | Bill | $150,000 |
World Affairs Councils of America is a network of 98 regional councils in 40 states, each autonomous. The individual councils are membership groups that engage in discussions of international affairs and critical global issues. They sponsor international exchanges, school programs, foreign policy discussions, conferences and other programs.
Texas China Business Council, LLC
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 3/31/2015 | Texas China Business Council, LLC | Austin, TX | Bill | $265,000 |
According to its website, TCBC “is an invitation-based organization of Texas and Chinese influencers jointly supporting the bilateral economic relationship through investment promotion and entrepreneurial exchange.” In 2015 TCBC was the local organizer of the China-US Private Investment Summit. Bill Clinton was one of the speakers at that event.
Television and print media
Mediacorp Canada, Inc.
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 11/13/2013 | Mediacorp Canada, Inc. | Toronto, Canada | Hillary | $225,000 |
Mediacorp’s website says “Mediacorp Canada Inc. manages the well-known Canada’s Top 100 Employers project and the Eluta.ca job search engine, now used by over 5.4 million Canadians annually. In addition, we host the nation’s largest annual conference for senior-level HR professionals. Founded in 1992, Mediacorp is Canada’s largest publisher of quality employment-related periodicals.”
A&E Television Networks
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 2/27/2014 | A&E Television Networks | New York, NY | Hillary | $280,000 |
A&E Networks is a US media company that owns a group of channels that are broadcast by cable and satellite in the US and other countries. It is a joint venture between Hearst Corporation and Disney-ABC Television Group, two huge conglomerates.
It apparently made no political contributions and paid no lobbyists in 2014, but it has made $42,835 in political contributions since 1994 and spent $80,000 on lobbying since 2007.
Media Control Gmbh
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 5/26/2013 | Media Control Gmbh | Baden Baden, Germany | Bill | $300,000 |
I could not find any information on that exact name, but there is mention of a Thomson Media Control GmbH KG, a German advertising monitoring company, which was acquired by Ebiquity in 2010. Ebiquity is a British provider of independent marketing analytics to corporations worldwide. After acquiring several other corporations which provided related services it now provides global advertising, media intelligence, advertising monitoring, reputation analysis, ROI analysis, etc..
Univision Management Company
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 6/10/2013 | Univision Management Company | Washington, DC | Bill | $275,000 |
| 5/12/2015 | Univision Management Company | New York, NY | Bill | $250,000 |
Univision Communications Inc. is an American company that owns Spanish-language television networks (broadcast, cable and digital), 61 television stations and original content creation facilities. Univision’s corporate website does not mention Univision Management Company, so they may be different entities. The Manta listing for Univision Management Company says it is a privately held New York corporation employing a staff of 2, with annual revenue of $96,000. It classifies Univision Management as a management services company, and lists a different address in New York than the address for Univision Communications.
Univision Management is listed on OpenSecrets.org as contributing $500 in campaign contributions in the 2014 election cycle and again in the 2012 cycle. Univision Communications is listed as an affiliate of Broadcasting Media Partners, which contributed $167,290 to political campaigns in the 2014 election cycle. It spent $950,000 on lobbying in both 2013 and 2014.
SEEC Media Group, Ltd.
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 11/18/2013 | SEEC Media Group, Ltd. | Beijing, China | Bill | $500,000 |
SEEC Media Group, Ltd. is a holding company incorporated in the Cayman Islands and its stocks are traded on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Its subsidiaries are leading media advertising agencies and book and magazine distributors in the People’s Republic of China.
Leaders and Company, Ltd. (THISDAY Newspaper Group)
| Date | Corporation | Place of speech | Speaker | Speaker fee |
| 2/26/2013 | Leaders and Company, Ltd. | Abeokuta, Nigeria | Bill | $725,000.00 |
Leaders and Company owns the Nigerian newspaper THISDAY, which, as of 2005, had a circulation of 100,000 and annual income of $35 million U.S.
In my next blog installment I will cover the other industries represented in their list of speeches.
