Neil Bush
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Neil Mallon Bush (born January 22, 1955 in Midland, Texas) is a son of former President George Herbert Walker Bush and Barbara Bush (Barbara Lane Pierce) and younger brother of President George Walker Bush and Governor Jeb Bush. He is a businessman based in Texas.
Early years
Neil Bush was named after a good friend of the family, Henry Neil Mallon, chairman of Dresser Industries, George Herbert Walker Bush's employer (Mallon had himself been hired by George Herbert Walker, George Bush's grandfather). As a child Bush spent some summers and holidays at his family's estate in Maine, the Bush Compound. Bush attended high school at the exclusive private St. Albans School in Washington, DC. He received his BA in Economics from Tulane University and his MBA from Tulane in 1979.[link]
Silverado S&L
Bush was on the board of directors of Silverado Savings and Loan during the 1980s. His father was Vice President of the United States at the time, so Bush's role was a focal point of publicity. The savings and loan crisis cost the taxpayers billions of dollars; Silverado's was one of the failures, with a taxpayer cost of about $1 billion.There was considerable criticism of Bush's role in the failure of the company. The US Office of Thrift Supervision, which scrutinized the implosion of Silverado, determined that Bush had engaged in numerous "breaches of his fiduciary duties involving multiple conflicts of interest." In the end Bush was not indicted, and there were no criminal charges against him. However a civil action was brought against him and the other Silverado directors by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; it was eventually settled out of court. Bush was fined $50,000 as a consequence of his actions and he was restricted from undertaking future banking activity.
Kopin Stock Trades
In July 1999, Neil Bush made at least $798,000 on three stock trades in a single day of a company where he had been employed as a consultant. The company, Kopin Corporation of Taunton, Massachusetts, announced good news about a new Asian client that sent its stock value soaring. Bush stated that he had no inside knowledge and that his financial advisor had recommended the trades. He said, "any increase in the price of the stock on that day was purely coincidental, meaning that I did not have any improper information."When asked, in January 2004, about the stock trades, Bush contrasted the capital gains he reported in 1999 and 2000 with the capital losses on Kopin stock he reported ($287,722 in all) in 2001. In 2001 Kopin joined a broad decline in high-tech stock valuations.[link]
Marriage and divorce
Bush and his former wife, Sharon Smith, were married for 23 years. They divorced in April 2003, amid a dispute with Maria and Robert Andrews. Robert Andrews sued Sharon in September 2003 for defamation after Sharon alleged that Neil was the father of the Andrews' two-year-old son. Bush's divorce deposition gained public attention when he admitted to having had sexual encounters with women in Thailand. [link] [link] [link] [link]. Neil and Sharon are the parents of three children; Lauren (a model), Pierce, and Ashley. The divorce proceedings gained public attention. At various times Sharon Bush publicly spoke of her fear of retribution by Neil Bush and the Bush Family. At other times she praised Barbara and George Bush's understanding. One of these conversations with author Kitty Kelley was witnessed by a third party. Bush was remarried in Houston, Texas on March 6, 2004 to Maria Andrews. Andrews spent time volunteering with charitable organizations with Neil's mother, Barbara Bush.Ignite! Learning
In 1999 Bush co-founded Ignite! Learning, a business corporation to sell educational software. The software uses multiple intelligence methods to provide varying types of content to appeal to multiple learning styles. To fund Ignite!, Bush raised $23 million from U.S. investors, including his parents, Barbara and former President George Bush, as well as businessmen from Taiwan, Japan, Kuwait, the British Virgin Islands and the United Arab Emirates, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ignite! pays Bush a salary of $180,000 per year.
Other business engagements
In 2002, Bush signed a consulting contract that paid $2 million dollars in stock over five years to work for Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., a firm backed by Jiang Mianheng, the son of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, plus $10,000 for every board meeting he attends.[link]Bush serves as co-chairman of a company called Crest Investment. Crest pays him $60,000 a year to provide "miscellaneous consulting services."
Bush frequently travels to the Middle East, Europe and Asia to negotiate deals and raise capital for various businesses. In 2000 he was paid $1.3 million for such work, including $642,500 as a commission for introducing an Asian investor to the owners of an American high-tech company.
Speaking engagements
Bush has often been invited to speak to audiences overseas, often in the Middle East. Several times Neil Bush's pronouncements on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have brought him controversy as well as occasional rebuke from the Bush administration.In Asia, Neil Bush accompanied Sun Myung Moon on his world peace tour [link].
Anti-Ritalin campaign
In 2002, Bush testified before a hearing of the United States Congress to speak out against over-medicating children for learning disorders. Scientologist activists Lisa Marie Presley and Bruce Wiseman also testified at these hearings supporting a stricter ban on psychological medications, as opposed to Bush's warning against false diagnoses.Bush's anti-Ritalin stance dates from a period when his son was recommended for Ritalin (the Bushes utilized an alternative education plan instead).
See also
External links
- [Excerpt from "George Bush--the unauthorized biography"]
- [The Relatively Charmed Life Of Neil Bush], Washington Post, December 28, 2003
- [Ignite! Learning Webpage]
- [Neil Bush's political donations]
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