Monday, September 10, 2007

Columbia University-Linked Kresge Foundation Gave $750,000 Grant To Columbia-Linked International House

Columbia University President Lee Bollinger (http://youtube.com/watch?v=g0JpF07SOo4 ) was paid $48,000 in 2005 by the tax-exempt Michigan-based Kresge Foundation just for sitting on that foundation’s board of trustees, according to the Kresge Foundation’s Form 990-PF financial disclosure form for 2005. And Columbia University Deputy Vice President for Development Frederick Van Sickle and Columbia University Business School’s Jerome A. Chazan Institute of International Business Senior Research Scholar Mary Wadsworth Darby also sit on the board of trustees of International House.

Coincidentally, in 2005 the Kresge Foundation gave a $750,000 grant to International House, which is located on Riverside Dr. and W.122nd St. (a few blocks from Columbia’s campus), to help subsidize the renovation of this residence for graduate students.

International House’s board of trustees also includes Fareed Zakaria of the Washington Post Company’s Newsweek International and Kresge Foundation Trustee Bollinger is also a member of the Washington Post Company board of directors. In addition, former Nixon Administration Secretary of State and Kissinger Associates influence-peddling firm head Henry Kissinger is also an honorary trustee of International House, while David Rockefeller is the honorary chairman of International House’s board of trustees.

The market value of the Columbia University-linked “non-profit” Kresge Foundation’s assets at the end of 2005 was about $3 billion; and between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2005 the Kresge Foundation earned over $27.9 million in net dividends and interest from the marketable securities it owned. During this same period, the Kresge Foundation’s total revenues of $418 million exceeded the tax-exempt foundation’s total expenses of only $156.9 million by about $261 million.

The “non-profit” and tax-exempt Kresge Foundation also paid Kresge Foundation President and CEO John Marshall III an annual salary of $616,936 in 2005; and the Kresge Foundation’s chief investment officer, Edward Human, was paid an annual salary of $595,474 in 2005.

Next: Columbia University-linked Kresge Foundation Owned $2 million Worth of Halliburton Stock In 2005