Robert Adam Mosbacher, Jr. (born May 29, 1951) is a Houston businessman and is the former head of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a US government agency aimed at promoting development by working with the private sector. Nominated by President George W. Bush, Mr. Mosbacher was sworn in as the ninth President and Chief Executive Officer of (OPIC) in October 2005.[1]
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From 1986 to 2005, Mosbacher was President and CEO of Mosbacher Energy Company of Houston, Texas, an independent oil and gas exploration and production company. He was also Vice Chairman of Mosbacher Power Group, an independent electric power developer, which began in 1995, and was sold in 2003. Mosbacher has also served as Chairman of the Board of the Methodist Hospital, the Salvation Army, Center for Houston's Future, Trust for an Early Education, and the Greater Houston Area Chapter of the American Red Cross, all in Houston. He is founder and former co-Chairman of Rebuilding Together Houston (formerly PSI HomeSavers), which organizes volunteers to deliver free exterior home repairs and has resulted in the repair of over 5,000 houses for qualified low-income elderly or disabled Houstonians. He has also served on the boards of South Texas College of Law, Chase Bank, the Society for the Performing Arts in Houston and as chairman of PreSchool for All. Mosbacher served as Chairman of the Board of the Greater Houston Partnership, a private, nonprofit organization that serves as the city’s chamber of commerce. He also served as Chairman of the Partnership’s Health Care Advisory Committee, and member and former Chairman of its Education & Workforce Advisory Committee.
Mosbacher currently serves on the Boards of Devon Energy, Calpine Corporation, Council of the Americas, Council on Foreign Relations, the Initiative for Global Development,[2] and is Chairman of the CHF International Board of Trustees.[3][4][5]
Mosbacher ran unsuccessfully in the 1997 Houston mayoral election, losing to Lee Brown. He received 48 percent of the vote in the run-off while raising a record-breaking $4 million for his bid (Brown raised $2.1 million). Mosbacher faced controversy in his run, living outside Houston, in West University Place, for 11 years and professing an abiding interest in federal and state issues rather than local concerns.
He also ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 1984, losing to Phil Gramm, and Texas lieutenant governor in 1990, losing to Bob Bullock.
In 1993, he wrote the book Deep In The Heart: A Remedy For An Ailing Texas. In this he made various recommendations regarding how the state of Texas could improve.[6]
In a notable event, Karl Rove was fired from the 1992 George Herbert Walker Bush campaign for criticizing Mosbacher who was the head of the Texas Victory Committee and an avowed Bush loyalist. This criticism of Mosbacher came in the form of a negative story Rove planted with the columnist Robert Novak. In 1992, "Sources close to the former president George H.W. Bush say Karl Rove was fired from the 1992 Bush presidential campaign after he planted a negative story with columnist Robert Novak about dissatisfaction with campaign fundraising chief and Bush loyalist Robert Mosbacher Jr. It was smoked out, and he was summarily ousted" (Esquire Magazine, January 2003). As Novak provided some evidence of Rove's motive in his column: "Also attending the session was political consultant Karl Rove, who had been shoved aside by Mosbacher". Mosbacher maintains that "Rove is the only one with a motive to leak this. We let him go. I still believe he did it."
Mosbacher Jr. is the son of Robert Mosbacher (1927–2010). He received his law degree from Southern Methodist University and his bachelor's degree from Georgetown University, as did his daughter Jane Mosbacher, who currently works at the U.S. Department of State's Office of Counter Terrorism and attends Columbia Business School's Executive MBA Program. She has written several opinion editorials about the role of women in society, particularly security.[7][8] His son, Peter, who graduated from Brown University and then University of Chicago graduate school, currently works for NASA.[9] His daughter Meredith is a Senior at Brown University, as well.