Arizona taxpayers and members of the public interested in the business side of ASU, should consider viewing a webinar on Monday, organized by U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC) with the assistance of Ambassador Kurt Volker to discuss “Establishing the American University in Kyiv (AUK).”
When: Monday, Dec 14, 2020 from, 10:00 am to 11:15 a.m. Washington time, 5:00 pm-6:15 pm Kyiv time, via ZOOM.
The webinar meeting will also be broadcast on two additional platforms:
The last time Arizonans heard of Volker was when he was pressured to step down from his position at the McCain Institute. According to NBC News, Volker “resigned as the head of the McCain Institute for International Leadership amid mounting fallout over his role in President Donald Trump’s push to get Ukraine to investigate his political opponents.” Upon his resignation, “A statement from Arizona State University, where the institute is based, said Volker would be on “paid administrative leave from his other university duties until further notice,” according to the NBC News report.
The first most Arizona heard of Volker was during President Donald Trump’s impeachment hearings. At the time of his testimony, Volker had just left his unpaid position as U.S. special envoy to Ukraine.
Now, Volker is with BGR (Barbour Griffith & Rogers), a public relations company hustling up interest in the private university in Ukraine among other projects. From BGR’s website:
With offices in Washington, Austin, Beijing and London, and extensive business relationships around the world, the bipartisan firm’s clients include Fortune 500 companies, foreign governments, trade associations, non-profit organizations, academic institutions, hospitals and coalitions. When executives, industry representatives and government leaders seek strategic partners for their most important challenges, they turn to a trusted partner: BGR.
The BGR team includes former senior-level appointees in the White House, Congress and Executive Branch departments and agencies. Our staffers also are veterans of political campaigns at the presidential, congressional and gubernatorial levels. In these key roles, team members gained expertise in public policy, strategic thinking, effective advocacy and delivering results.
BGR Public Relations team members have dozens of years of experience at the highest levels of journalism as well as in political, corporate and international communications.
Volker joins such luminaries as former Wisconsin Rep. Sean Duffy, Governor Haley Barbour, and FOX News pundit and former Senior Executive Clandestine Service Officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, Daniel Hoffman. The firm is best know for its representation of Microsoft in its antitrust battle with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Volker nearly became a household name during President Donald Trump’s impeachment hearings. The President was facing impeachment due to allegations that his team was meddling in the Ukraine to damage former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, and sometimes business partner, Hunter Biden.
According to the Arizona Republic, “Volker testified that he was “surprised” when he eventually learned about the content of the July 25 telephone conversation between Trump and new Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to notes of that call, Trump asked Zelensky for “a favor” that included investigating Democratic political rival Joe Biden and his son.
The public has recently learned that the phone call violated no laws, but the younger Biden is the subject of several DOJ investigations for his activities in Ukraine and China.
ASU has come under scrutiny over the years for its complicated and almost impossible to navigate web of public private partnerships and exponential growth everywhere including Arizona. As a result, the latest venture in Ukraine is raising questions and eyebrows:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – YOU ARE INVITED TO ATTEND a webinar “Establishing the American University in Kyiv (AUK)” organized by U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC) on Monday, Dec 14, 2020 from, 10:00 am to 11:15 a.m. Washington time, 5:00 pm-6:15 pm Kyiv time, via ZOOM.
The American University Kyiv (AUK) will be a world class private university in Ukraine, opening in September 2021. AUK will have access to world-leading curriculum from Arizona State University.
AUK will bring together investors from Georgia and Ukraine. The partnership is co-managed by Cintana Education – a world leader in university design and transformation – which maintains a strategic partnership with Arizona State University. Cintana has developed and launched new universities across Europe, the Americas, and Asia Pacific. Additional information about the American University in Kyiv and about the seven panelists can be found in the two attachments to this e-mail.
USUBC WEBINAR PANELISTS —
1) Amb. Kurt Volker, Distinguished Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA); in 2017-2019 U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations,
Washington, D.C.
2) Dr. Stefanie Lindquist, Senior Vice President, Global Academic Initiatives, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
3) Cagri Bagcioglu, Regional Director, Cintana Education, Tempe, Arizona
4) Rick Shangraw, President, Cintana Education, Tempe, Arizona
5) Oleksii Shershnov, Director, Wings and Freeman Capital, Kyiv, Ukraine
6) Serhii Voitsekhovskyi, Member of the Board of Directors, BGV/ATB Group, Kyiv, Ukraine
7) Karlo Goginava, Managing Director, Wings and Freeman Capital, Tbilisi, Georgia.
NOTE: PLEASE FORWARD THE INVITATION to anyone you think would be interested. The meeting is open.
Morgan Williams, Moderator, President & CEO, U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC), Washington, D.C. USUBC is the largest private Ukraine specific trade association in he world not headquartered inside Ukraine with over 220 members. USUBC is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2020. USUBC was established in Washington, D.C. in October of 1995. Williams became President of USUBC in January of 2007.
TO REGISTER your attendance for the online ZOOM meeting on Monday, Dec 14, please click on the “REGISTER” button below and fill the form:
The link to join the online ZOOM meeting will be sent to you in the confirmation e-mail after you register.
FOOTNOTE: USUBC thanks Ambassador Kurt Volker for his assistance in arranging for the USUBC webinar about establishing the American University in Kyiv.
Over the next several weeks we will be exploring once again whether taxpayers benefit from ASU’s extracurricular activities. Please let us know what you know and what you want to know. Email us at info@arizonadailyindependent.com