The greatest share of Ms. Haines’s revenue got here from Columbia University, which paid her greater than $440,000 to assist run a global analysis challenge and to lecture on the college’s regulation college. She additionally was paid $150,000 to seek the advice of for the utilized physics lab at Johns Hopkins University, and almost $55,000 to seek the advice of and make introductions for WestExec Advisors, the agency Mr. Blinken helped discovered.
Mr. Blinken, who served as deputy secretary of state within the Obama administration, shaped WestExec Advisors about eight months after he left workplace with three different Obama administration officers.
The agency, which takes its title from the small avenue that runs between the West Wing of the White House and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, was employed by purchasers trying for recommendation in navigating the federal authorities. The agency additionally paired with enterprise capital funds that helped firms it suggested develop to take on federal contracts or different new work.
Mr. Blinken’s disclosure forms present that he labored with 17 WestExec purchasers, together with Microsoft, Uber, AT&T, FedEx, LinkedIn, the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, the pharmaceutical firm Gilead Sciences and McKinsey & Company, the worldwide consulting agency.
WestExec mentioned in an announcement after Mr. Blinken emerged because the probably secretary of state decide that he helped enterprise leaders “make the best decisions in a complex and volatile international landscape.”
In some circumstances, Mr. Blinken additionally publicly defended purchasers. When Facebook got here beneath hearth for failing to adequately battle disinformation in the course of the 2016 election — together with posts that had been a part of a Russian effort to spice up Mr. Trump’s presidential marketing campaign — Mr. Blinken mentioned the blame ought to be directed primarily at Russia.
Social media platforms “have to do better to defend against malicious actors, but let’s not lose sight of the forest for the trees: The problem is Russia and other actors who use our openness against us, not the platforms,” Mr. Blinken mentioned in an interview with Fast Company. “The biggest mistake we can make is to get into a circular firing squad with government and the tech companies,” Mr. Blinken advised the publication, which recognized him as an adviser to each Facebook and Alphabet, the mum or dad firm of Google.
