Spencer Zwick is Romney's Karl Rove with a privatized twist:
Zwick isn’t employed by the campaign. Instead, he works through SJZ Inc., a Boston company he formed that has taken in nearly $9.6 million for “fundraising consulting” from Romney this election season.
And Zwick is simultaneously keeping an eye on funding his private equity firm, Solamere.
So many interests, so much money, so little time. Sigh!
Rove must like Zwick. Karl Rove Gave Secret Speech Outside Romney Donor Retreat for Solamere.
Meg Whitman likes Zwick, too. Meg paid Zwick's SJZ Inc. $564,046 and Solamere $96,000, where Meg's son, Griffith R. Harsh IV became a junior analyst. The payments to Solamere were for the services of Mason J Fink who left Solamere when Meg's son joined Solamere.
Some true stories are so hard to follow that it really helps to have flow charts.
Welcome to the world of Muckety, a fun tool for those who enjoy visually connecting the dots.
Sadly, the Muckety interactive link won't work here. So, click here to connect with the interactive version of this Meet Spencer Zwick map
You can click on Muckety and search for a person, entity, or company. If Muckety has done the work, you will see a map.
I rearrange the maps to make more sense to me and then save and bookmark my work.
MUKETY NOTE: The SOLID LINES represent current relationships and the dotted lines represent previous relationships. I separate them first, placing the current relationships on the left and previous relationships on the right.
LET'S LOOK AT SPENCER ZWICK above.
QUICK BACKGROUND:
Spencer Zwick grew up in Salt Lake City and Brazil where his dad worked for the Mormon Church.
It is worth noting that Spencer's father, W. Craig Zwick, was one of the 70 top leaders of the Mormon Church and was the leader for the Northeast area of the USA in 2001.
Therefore, it's a reasonable conclusion to state that Mitt Romney was acquainted with President Zwick.
I can't find confirmation that Zwick graduated from BYU or any college. I think he was born in 1979.
He served an LDS Church mission to Bangkok, Thailand and returned to BYU in either 1999 or 2000.
The languages he learned landed him a spot translating documents for the Olympic organizing committee and praise from the committee's top guy, Mitt Romney.
As Romney headed further into the media and public spotlight, he asked Zwick to serve as his personal aide. Zwick hasn't left his side since.
Apparently, Spencer Zwick is also a whiz kid whether or not he got a college degree.
Of course, Zwick also got to know Tagg Romney, who is also the nephew of G Scott Romney, an attorney. I suspect G Scott Romney helped these young men run the legal gauntlets to set up Solamere. G Scott Romney now serves as a Solamere Advisor.
It's all who you know!
Since 2008, Tagg, Spencer, and Eric are all millionaires now. I love how they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps.
According to this SEC document about $200,000,000 in shares to be sold of SOLAMERE FOUNDERS FUND I LP, dated June 1, 2008 the Three Boys will be paid a total of $16,800,000 "Estimated aggregate amounts for first six years, and the Issuer will continue to pay management fees thereafter." In the document the Three Boys DECLINED TO DISCLOSE the issuer size.
The same $16,800,000 "The amount represents an estimate of the aggregate management fees payable in the first 6 years; the Issuer will continue to pay management fees thereafter.
is reiterated in this 2009-05-29 SOLAMERE FOUNDERS FUND I LP SEC document.
It is interesting to note that no Broker/Dealer is named. The investors are such trusting people.
Speaking of which,the first investor was key to beefing up Solamere:
About a month after Mitt Romney ended his bid for the Republican presidential nomination in February 2008, Tagg, and Zwick, met with a beef company executive who had been a major campaign donor, John R. Miller, with a business proposition: the opportunity to invest in a private equity fund they were starting, Solamere Capital.
Neither had experience in private equity. But what the close friends did have was the Romney name and a Rolodex of deep-pocketed potential investors who had backed Mr. Romney’s presidential run — more than enough to start them down that familiar path from politics to profit.
Mr. Miller is now on the Solamere Management team along with
Allan Dowds and
Lee Scott, chairman of the executive committee of the Board of Directors of Wal-Mart Stores and former President and CEO of WalMart.
Deep roots and deep pockets make it so much easier for young men to get a grip on those boot straps!
But, please have some compassion for these handsome, physically fit, hugely well-connected and now uber wealthy young men. Uber wealth has it's challenges.
Tagg has faced one difficult ethics issue:
Spencer Zwick, not a political operative, had to find his niche. He learned he was a whiz at raising money for Mitt. There has been a rumor that the Mormon Church elite helped make that happen. But let's give Spencer all the credit
"40 CEOs have provided the capital for Solamere" says Zwick.
At age 25 Spencer Zwick was running the Office of the Governor in Massachussetts as Deputy Chief of Staff for Mitt Romney.
Spencer founded Solamere Capital with Tagg Romney and Eric Scheuermann. Spencer has spent the past seven years building the Solamere network while working directly with Governor Mitt Romney in both the public and private sectors.
At Romney for President, Spencer was the youngest person in history to hold the position of National Finance Director for a presidential campaign. In that capacity, Spencer created and managed a team of 100 senior executives and 75 staff in one of the most successful fundraising efforts in the history of Republican politics.
Spencer previously served as Deputy Chief of Staff and COO to the Office of Governor Romney in Massachusetts. In that position, he oversaw all operational and financial activity of the Office of the Governor.
He also served as the executive liaison to five of the twelve cabinet agencies.
Previously, Spencer worked in the Executive Office of the Salt Lake City Olympic Organizing Committee for the Winter Games of 2002, where he worked under the direction of Governor Romney to help erase a $379 million deficit. Upon completion, the Salt Lake Games were hailed as the most successful in Olympic history. Spencer is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and Thai. Spencer and his wife Jenny reside in Wellesley, MA and are the parents of three children.
Really! Mitt Romney delegated the Chief-of-Staff position as Governor to a 25 year old kid who had never held a job other than helping Mitt. What is his tie with this young man anyway?
I wonder if Spencer Zwick is as heartless as Governor Romney was back then?
For a blow by blow tip toe through Governor Heartless' record I recommend reading
Romney is a Fraud - Satirically tracking the Fraud Governor and his band of sidekicks.
Here's a recap of some of Romney's acts as Governor
And while not rank ordered, we begin with our favorite fraud of '03 which is a microcosm of all we have witnessed since Romney took office:
· The Fraud Governor claimed to cut short his vacation to oversee security in the Commonwealth, then left the Commonwealth for vacation!
Romney also,
· pledged to save the taxpayers $2 billion in waste, fraud and abuse, but did not;
· pledged to not raise taxes, then increased a gas tax (and shifted the money into the General Fund), proposed a new tax on IRS closing agreements, proposed a new tax on diversified savings and loan companies, and proposed a new tax on late-filed refund returns;
· pledged to manage better without seeking new revenue, then implemented $500 million in new fees;
· pledged to not cut core services, then tried to reduce school aid, including reimbursements for the cost of educating severely disabled students;
· pledged to abolish the hack-infested MDC, then created a new state agency, largely staffed by former MDC employees;
· pledged to not hire cronies or insiders, then cherry-picked from the staff of former state Treasurer Joe Malone, who headed one of the worst administrations in state government since Sir Edmund Andros (in 1689);
· pledged to create full-day kindergarten, but did not;
· pledged to protect seniors, yet has repeatedly cut elder programs and failed to fund Alzheimer’s programs;
· pledged to create more affordable housing, but cut state housing and rental programs;
· allowed his toll-free, waste hot line to become an ad for dial-a-porn. (Doubt us? Go ahead, dial 1-888-END-PORK and follow the instructions, if you dare!);
· pledged to embark on an extended out-of-state mission to bring jobs to the Commonwealth, but did not;
· pledged to reform the judicial nomination process, then nominated, as his first judge, an insider;
· initiated almost a dozen task forces after campaigning against the use of task forces;
· proposed across-the-board budget cuts after criticizing former Gov. Jane Swift (R-Flag Bearer) for implementing across-the-board budget cuts;
· pledged to implement a transportation policy based upon a defined, public process, then declared that Greenbush would be completed – before he finished his defined, public process for setting transportation policy.
Oh yeah, and most of these are just what we’ve noticed since the beginning of September!
So hold on to your wallets, kids. Team Reform has another three years at the trough. In the meantime, we’ll break out a clean slate and chalk box.
Will Spencer Zwick, now hopelessly married to Romney, be his Senior Advisor and/or Chief-of-Staff like Rove did for Bush?
Like Spencer Zwick clearly states, he attributes his success with who he attached himself to. He attached himself to Mitt Romney.
A must read: Ties to Romney ’08 Helped Fuel an Equity Firm
So, along with being a top Romney advisor, Zwick is/runs SJZ Inc., is one of the three owners of SOLAMERE FOUNDERS FUND I LP, and is making $Millions.
TAGG overcame his Ethical Dilemma by investing in Solamere Advisors.
All but ten of the 11 Solamere Advisors employees had come from the Charlotte office of Stanford Financial Group.
Remember the name Spencer Zwick.
NOTE TO YOUNG MEN EVERYWERE: KISS UP TO THE REALLY WEALTHY, WELL-CONNECTED GUYS YOU MEET
Now, more than ever, it's who you know not what you know.