Bush picks Kellogg CEO to be Commerce boss

[Freddie Stubbs]

Associated Press
Nov. 29, 2004 09:00 AM

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Monday chose Carlos Gutierrez, chief executive officer of the Kellogg Co., to be secretary of Commerce, administration officials said.

If confirmed by the Senate, Gutierrez would succeed Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, a Texas confidant of Bush's, who announced his resignation shortly after the Nov. 2 election.

Gutierrez, whose family fled Cuba in 1960 when he was 6, joined Kellogg in 1975. Known for having a strong work ethic and a seemingly endless stream of ideas, he worked all over the world for the company before being promoted to president and chief operating officer in June 1998.

Last year, Gutierrez received about $7.4 million in total compensation, including salary, bonus and incentive payments, according to a Kellogg proxy statement. He owns or has option rights to 2 million shares of company stock.

more: http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/1129BushCabinet29-ON.html

[opihimoimoi]

1. NOW THERE IS A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

He is full of good ideas and has a good work ethic....something B lacks.

and he is going to give up nearly 30 millionSSS from Kellog....what to do??

[Bono71]

6. Keloggs, from what I know, is a great company in every sense

of the word.

[Occulus]

20. I have a friend who works there

She really loves it. They apparently treat her quite well from what she says.

[Bono71]

23. I've heard the same from people that work for them in

Memphis.

[TahitiNut]

34. Kellogg gave 60% to Reps, 40% to Dems, in 2004

General Mills gave 72% to Reps and 28% to Dems.

http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/contrib.asp?Ind=G2100

In 2002, it was Kellogg Co - 58% to Dems, 42% to Reps

[Deja Q]

52. Let's see how this dude WORKS OUT before we cheer him. Hey could be a

"yes man" in the end.

[napi21]

2. So what do we know about this Carlos?

If the story is true about him starting out with Kellog driving a truck to deliver cereal, and working his way up to CEO...that's pretty impressive. Does anyone know what kind of a job he did a CEO at Kellog?

[Bono71]

8. Don't know, but their dividend is NICE

[bullimiami]

3. As expected.

Another rich rightwing crook.
Every henhouse gets a rabid fox to guard it.

[Bono71]

10. Don't know about that

[Freddie Stubbs]

12. What has he stolen?

:shrug:

[LakeCohoon]

32. What would you do?

Nominate a complete idoit?

[Dem2theMax]

40. NO. How can * nominate himself?

Oh, it was just sitting there, waiting for someone to come along and say it. :evilgrin:

[LakeCohoon]

62. True

That is true and while the dimwit cannot nominate himself, he will occasionally stumble into a first-rate decision.

Sometimes I do too. <g>

[hughee99]

59. Would you feel any better with a

poor rightwing crook? I don't think appointing someone as Commerce secretary who was in a position to get a larger understanding of the economy is necessarily a bad thing. And we were going to get a right-winger no matter what. At least as it looks so far, they could have picked someone much worse. Hey, at least it isn't someone from Kellog, Brown and Root.

[SoCalDem]

4. And Frosted Flakes cost $4.59 a box

:(

[Bono71]

7. Keloggs is union friendly, though.

[LifeDuringWartime]

49. wow

i remember when my mom wouldnt buy it because "3 dollars is too expensive for cereal"

[Algorem]

5. works well with flakes

[Bono71]

9. LOL

[mac56]

11. He's done great things with Kellogg.

This looks like a pretty good pick for the chimp.

I guess even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and again.

[elehhhhna]

13. He shut down Battle Creek & fired 500 plus employees. FYI.

[Bono71]

15. That's going to happen every now and then

[Zephyrbird]

26. Jesus Pete!!

Tell that to the people who lost their jobs! What an insensitive remark--ho hum, lost your job and house--ah well that's the breaks!

It wasn't done because of lost earnings. A whole plant was shut down because the company didn't want to spend the money to refurbish it with new equipment. So they shut down the plant, fired the workers from that plant, and moved the production over to another plant and added the workload to the workers who were there.

I live in Kalamazoo, BC's sister city, so we know the real story here. Honestly. You put a pig in a pink tutu and a little pink ribbon on its head and it looks cute, but it's still a pig.

Granholm and the mayor of BC had just worked out a huge incentive program to move jobs into BC with Kellogg just this year, but you wouldn't believe the incentives they had to give to move a few hundred jobs back here from Indiana.

Sheesh!

[Bono71]

27. Hold on there...

I never said I didn't feel sorry for those who lost their jobs. Stop typing words into my post! :)

If you are going to disqualify a business leader for making difficult choices, in a recession, you will disqualify the entire field. Go look at the company's stance when it comes to unions if you want the whole picture.

In the last 4 years, many businesses (including small ones) have shut down operations because of various economic reasons. That is going to happen, that is business.

[Deja Q]

53. Yup, put more pressure on other workers as well as ending others' work

[knitter4democracy]

63. That's true

I'm in K'Zoo too, and we're moving to BC this spring (hubby's a doctor there now), and a lot of people in BC can't stand that guy. In fact, I heard about the appointment first from my best friend whose stepdad works there. Frankly, he was happy to see him go. Kellogg's isn't the best, but at least they still have some jobs here and are somewhat union-friendly.

[mac56]

16. Really? Ooops....

Damn. Didn't know that. Guess I have to read more about him.

[mac56]

17. He's a bigger jerk than was apparent. Figures.

http://www1.iwon.com/home/careers/company_profile/0,15623,1321,00.html

In 1999, Cuban-born Carlos Gutierrez took Arnold Langbo's position as CEO. Four months into his job, Gutierrez shocked Battle Creek, Michigan, Kelloggs' hometown, by closing the company's hometown plant and eliminating 550 jobs in the city.

(snip)

For years Kellogg's lived in its Battle Creek oasis, distanced from the corporate downsizing trends of the last two decades. But with the cold reality Kellogg's reduced waistline in 1998, one employee somberly relates that "the company cut back its main offices" and "forced early retirements with buyouts." Smaller profits and fierce competition have prompted Kellogg to hire more workers on part-time contracts, a move that many employees say was "widely resented."

[mac56]

18. dupe - sorry

nm

[elehhhhna]

19. Here's some info:

WSWS : News & Analysis : North America : US Economy

Kellogg and Pratt & Whitney top list of US job cuts
By Andrea Grant-Friedman
21 August 1999
Use this version to print

According Challenger, Gray and Christmas Inc., a job placement firm based in New York, July marks the sixteenth consecutive month of a year to year increase in job cuts. Two thousand workers over the past month have lost their jobs with little or no warning, particularly impacting the small business market. Also, Layoffs resulting from mergers between firms rose by 52 percent this year as compared to last.

Kellogg, the world's top producer of ready-to-eat cereals, announced August 14 that it will cut 550 jobs by closing the company's largest production facility, South Plant, in Battle Creek, Michigan. With annual earnings having dropped 21 percent last year, this new wave of layoffs follows a 21 percent cut in the company's salaried workforce already made this past December. Three hundred of those layoffs took place in Battle Creek.

Despite efforts by state officials—with the offer of a tax incentive package nearing $60 million—to induce the company to maintain operations at the South Plant facility, the company pressed ahead with its plans. The cessation of operations at the Battle Creek plant, stated CEO Carlos Gutierrez, will yield annual savings of between $35 million and $45 million.

[Bono71]

21. If earning drop 21%, layoffs are going to happen, I don't

care who is in charge.

I hate Bush, but he picked a good person (for once).

[mhr]

Wonder How Long He Will Last Though

Proactive CEOs find the government stifling.

One can't snap their fingers and expect things to happen.

[OKNancy]

14. Not a rags to riches story

Good article. He came from a family of wealthy Cubans.

http://www.hispaniconline.com/magazine/2004/jan_feb/CoverStory/

[napi21]

22. Good article. I have to agree with another poster on this one...

even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while. It seems that shrub might have made a decent choice on this one. I have to wonder if shrub will really pay any attention to him though. Paul O'Neil was a good guy, and you remember how long he lasted! In the announcement this morning, shrub sounded like he was really going to miss Evans. I hope that doesn't mean he won't give the new guy a fair chance!

[yardwork]

33. We knew that shrub would choose a conservative for Commerce

This could be a lot worse.

[mitchum]

55. I suspected as much, since very few POOR Cubans were fleeing...

Cuba in 1960. It was mostly corrupt Batistaites with their ill-gotten gains.
OKNancy, thanks for injecting some truth and sanity into this sickeningly laudatory thread :)

[Just Me]

24. Wonder if he'll last longer than O'Neill. n/t

[SmartBomb]

25. Snap, Crackle, Pop (Bush's brain during the debates)

Hmm... maybe that's how he got the idea to hire him...

[SoCalDem]

28. More about Gutierrez.. he's not the "rags to riches" guy ...

http://www.hispaniconline.com/magazine/2004/jan_feb/CoverStory/

snip........

As Gutiérrez himself notes, his family was part of Havana’s high society. The family lived in the upscale suburb of Miramar, in spacious homes with vast yards that were shaded by mango and banana trees. While many Cubans speak of coming to the United States with little more than pocket change and the clothes on their back, Pedro and Olga Gutiérrez and their two sons were able to leave with $2,000 and 22 suitcases in 1960. They arrived in Florida, and settled in Key Biscayne, just minutes from Miami, when the landscape was blanketed by people walking among the mangrove roots in flipflops and shorts.
“Key Biscayne and Miami Beach were beachy; there weren’t all the buildings that there are now,” says Gutiérrez’s older brother, Pablo.

For a while, Gutiérrez recalls, his parents, like so many Cuban exiles, believed their stay in the United States would just be temporary. “It felt to me like we were on a holiday, a vacation,” Gutiérrez says. “We thought things would change in Cuba and we could return.” Eventually, like other Cubans, Pedro Gutiérrez realized he was in the United States for the long haul. He moved his family around the country, and to Mexico, following job opportunities.The transience helped draw Carlos and his brother Pablo closer together.

“I think he knows me better than anyone,” Carlos Gutiérrez says of his brother, a 52-year-old construction contractor who lives in Miami. “We went through everything together,” says Pablo Gutiérrez, who speaks with a slight Southern twang. “From the crisis in Cuba, to different schools, living in different cities here, we went through all those changes together. We can tell by looking at each other what’s on each other’s minds; it’s almost like we’re twins. We fly out to have dinner with each other as often as possible.” There aren’t many Cubans in Battle Creek, but the Gutiérrez home has a decidedly Latino feel. Gutiérrez and his wife, whom he met in Mexico, speak Spanish at home, and many artifacts from Mexico and prints of Cuba adorn his house. Vacations are usually spent in either Mexico or Miami, where his mother lives.

His three children, ages 17, 20 and 23, understand Spanish, but only the oldest—a son—is truly bilingual, Gutiérrez says. “The other kids answer in English when their mother speaks to them in Spanish.”He grew up listening to Chicago and the Rolling Stones. Salsa queen Celia Cruz was “my parents’ music,” he says. But he’s supremely proud of his Cuban roots. “Cuban families talk a lot about the fact that they’re Cuban,” he says, with a small laugh. “Cuba and the culture were really drilled into me at home, and I’ve probably done the same with my kids.”



snip...

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

64. It seems 99.99999999% of all "rags to riches" stories are myth.

What's that name that's often used to mock these kind of stories? Foreing-sounding name, I think begins with an A.

[happynewyear]

29. Kelloggs = GMO'd shit food BOYCOTT!!!!

and add Wal-Mart to this sinking ship list!

www.karmabanque.com

:kick:

[Bono71]

30. When do we fire up the politburo?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

65. Oh, the oppressive tyranny of fresh fruit. Oh, the commie wilyness of

choosing to eat at a mom'n'pop joint instead of McDonald's.

We are so EEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL!

[RPM]

31. geez - if he is as good as Treasury boss Snow...

... then we are completly FUCKED.

These dinguses can run a company where strict obedience is the rule, but seem to struggle in an economy where people can exercise choice.

Strange, isn't it?

[seasat]

35. Bush gets his policies from the back of a cereal box...

so this appointment makes sense.

[cosmicdot]

36. hope Mr. Gutierrez isn't compromising any principles

by accepting the nomination ...

[daleo]

37. Since he's from Cuba

I would be curious to know his position on Castro, the current government, the embargo, etc.

[w4rma]

38. I'm less interested in that. I'm interested in his position on Batista's

rule of Cuba.

[Bono71]

41. He would probably say

that both Batista and Castro "suck major ass..." verbatum.

[w4rma]

44. From his background it sounds like he may have benefited greatly from

Batista's rule. It also sounds like his family may have been a strong supporter of Fulgencio Batista.

[Bono71]

45. maybe...tough to say...Batista sucked, but so did Castro...

[w4rma]

47. As I said, I'm less interested in his opinion on Castro than his opinion

on Batista.

His opinion on Batista would explain his beliefs. His opinion on Castro, either way, would explain nothing.

[daleo]

42. That too.

I suppose his attitude to one would give a pretty good indication of his attitude to the other.

[mitchum]

56. Nostalgic?

I would bet

[hughee99]

60. Since he's only 51 years old

His personal "Batista" experience can only be limited at best. Most of what he probably knows about that era come from his family and friends. Had he lived under Batista longer, and as an adult, his opinions of that regime would probably be more worthwhile. Being so young, I imagine most of his opinions are based more on what his parents and other older relatives told him than anything else.

[SoCalDem]

46. He's from the "aristocracy"....

http://www.hispaniconline.com/magazine/2004/jan_feb/Cov... /

snip........

As Gutiérrez himself notes, his family was part of Havana’s high society. The family lived in the upscale suburb of Miramar, in spacious homes with vast yards that were shaded by mango and banana trees. While many Cubans speak of coming to the United States with little more than pocket change and the clothes on their back, Pedro and Olga Gutiérrez and their two sons were able to leave with $2,000 and 22 suitcases in 1960. They arrived in Florida, and settled in Key Biscayne, just minutes from Miami, when the landscape was blanketed by people walking among the mangrove roots in flipflops and shorts.
“Key Biscayne and Miami Beach were beachy; there weren’t all the buildings that there are now,” says Gutiérrez’s older brother, Pablo.

For a while, Gutiérrez recalls, his parents, like so many Cuban exiles, believed their stay in the United States would just be temporary. “It felt to me like we were on a holiday, a vacation,” Gutiérrez says. “We thought things would change in Cuba and we could return.” Eventually, like other Cubans, Pedro Gutiérrez realized he was in the United States for the long haul. He moved his family around the country, and to Mexico, following job opportunities.The transience helped draw Carlos and his brother Pablo closer together.

“I think he knows me better than anyone,” Carlos Gutiérrez says of his brother, a 52-year-old construction contractor who lives in Miami. “We went through everything together,” says Pablo Gutiérrez, who speaks with a slight Southern twang. “From the crisis in Cuba, to different schools, living in different cities here, we went through all those changes together. We can tell by looking at each other what’s on each other’s minds; it’s almost like we’re twins. We fly out to have dinner with each other as often as possible.” There aren’t many Cubans in Battle Creek, but the Gutiérrez home has a decidedly Latino feel. Gutiérrez and his wife, whom he met in Mexico, speak Spanish at home, and many artifacts from Mexico and prints of Cuba adorn his house. Vacations are usually spent in either Mexico or Miami, where his mother lives.

His three children, ages 17, 20 and 23, understand Spanish, but only the oldest—a son—is truly bilingual, Gutiérrez says. “The other kids answer in English when their mother speaks to them in Spanish.”He grew up listening to Chicago and the Rolling Stones. Salsa queen Celia Cruz was “my parents’ music,” he says. But he’s supremely proud of his Cuban roots. “Cuban families talk a lot about the fact that they’re Cuban,” he says, with a small laugh. “Cuba and the culture were really drilled into me at home, and I’ve probably done the same with my kids.”



snip...

[Carl Brennan]

50. Wonder if he knew Felix Rodriguez?

[mitchum]

57. Or Meyer Lansky?

[Carl Brennan]

58. This Carlos Gutierrez's old man was Cuban Mafia.

Jose Gutierrez
Over the course of two years, Jose Ramon Gutierrez went from an aspiring lawyer to prison inmate. As a law student at the University of Havana in Cuba, he was following the path already laid down by his father and grandfather. Jose, my father, excelled at his studies using his wit and fiery temper to win over his professors during mock trials. Unfortunately he would never finish law school because his whole family was eventually forced to leave Cuba by the newly established Castro government. When Fidel Castro assumed power in 1959, he was seen as the savior of the Cuban people. Within months though, it became clear Castro wanted to eliminate any persons he saw as enemies of his government. My fatherís family came under surveillance by Castroís secret police and my father himself was forced to flee to the U.S.

Alone and worried about his family, my father struggled to assimilate into life in the U.S. He came to Florida where he quickly became involved in anti-Castro operations already underway in Miami. Recruited by the C.I.A., he left to train in Central America with his fellow Cuban exiles. For months he struggled under harsh conditions to learn guerrilla warfare for an upcoming military strike on Cuba. The invasion would come to be known as the Bay of Pigs. When his eldest sister arrived in Miami a few months later, she had no idea about his whereabouts or when he would return. She only received an occasional letter that described the secrecy of his training and his newly found role as a freedom fighter. The recently exiled Cubans like my father truly believed that their U.S. military trainers were the key to winning back the island from Castro. Their enthusiasm for the mission barely disguised their nervousness or fear considering that most of them had never been involved in real combat.

Sometime after midnight on April 17, 1961 my fatherís sister was awoken with a phone call from a friend who was directly involved in the planning of the Bay of Pigs invasion. At the risk of losing his job, the man told my aunt that the invasion had begun and that she should pray for my father. He explained that the C.I.A. had grossly underestimated Castroís forces and the casualties for the exiles would most likely be devastating. Only a few hundred miles away on the coast of Cuba, my father was leaping off a boat surrounded by several hundred other Cuban exile men determined to liberate their country. For the first few hours of the invasion they retained the element of surprise and succeeded in penetrating Castroís initial defenses. Within hours, though, my father had lost several friends in the fighting while he himself was wounded by a mortar shell. For more than a day, my father and numerous others avoided capture by escaping into the thick jungle that is part of Cubaís lush landscape.

Eventually they were captured and immediately sent to the old and rotting prisons just outside of Havana. My father suffered for nearly two years in one of those prisons and wondered whether he would ever see his family again.

As the end of 1962 neared, my father was informed that he was being ransomed for farming tractors by the United States. Two days before Christmas, my father finally arrived in Miami with the last of the released Bay of Pigs prisoners. He had lost sixty pounds and wore a faded beige uniform usually reserved for a cook on a navy ship. His eldest sister took him home and fed him his first meal in two years that was not contaminated or rotten. The slight bit of grease on the steak was too much for his stomach to handle and he became ill. Yet, as my father says, it was worth it. Never in his life had a steak tasted so good. He was home and happy to see his family and friends who would now call the United States their home.

Submitted by:
carlos gutierrez
http://yourtruehero.org/content/hero/view_hero.asp?7960

[sdfernando]

39. It's Uncle Joe!

I don't know if anyone has noticed but this guy bears a striking resemblance to Josef Stalin.

Not to imply anything by that, I don't know anything about him. Just something I noticed.

[signmike]

66. haha - I noticed that, too...

A friend of mine looks just like Joe Stalin, with the moustache and all...though some of our friends say he looks more like Jack Elam.

[daleo]

43. Some history of Kellog's cereal, although not strictly relevant

"What these jolly historical overviews fail to draw attention to, however, is that Kellogg was a kook, a quack doctor. You see, what Dr J.H. Kellogg was really seeking was a cure for masturbation. Corn Flakes were part of his radical purifying diet, intended to remove the impurities of the body which led to that impure deed. If diet failed, he advocated circumcision without anaesthetic, which he felt would teach the hairy-palmed savage a salutory lesson. (For women, he suggested burning off the problem area with acid.)

In fact, it's thanks to Kellogg and a few other religious quack doctors that genital mutilation of newborn children became a routine practice in America. Knowledge of the health risks of circumcision is now spreading widely, but Kellogg and colleagues have had a lasting effect on generations of American men.

Kellogg tried to give his breakfast cereal invention to the Seventh Day Adventists. We might have seen Seventh Day Adventist Flakes next to the Quaker Oats, but sadly the church didn't entirely share the good doctor's convictions, and turned him down. Graham crackers were also part of an attempt at curing vices such as masturbation; they too went on to achieve great popularity in the USA, but their religious beginnings are generally forgotten... All of which goes to show that good inventions have sprung from the minds of religious lunatics."

I don't know if all of this fellow's claims are true, but I have heard stuff to this effect before.

http://www.infidels.org/infidels/web.scan/1999/scan07.html

[PatGund]

48. Hey, Shrinking US Economy and Weakening US Dollar???

To him, they're GRRREATTT!! (sorry, had to be said.)

Seriously, this guy is used to producing and marketing nuts and flakes, so he should be at home in the * misadministration.

[goforit]

51. Thank god I stopped buying Kellog products a while ago!!!

Knew that they were nothing but scum!!

[Deja Q]

54. DO NOT FORGET PEOPLE, it will be legal to NOT say where food came from

It was struck down, saying it would cost too much for manufacturers to put a sticker on every box saying which country provided the food.

You can bet your sweet bippy that more food production is going offshore and we won't know a damn thing about it.

Keep that in mind before we blindly kiss or kiss this man's butt. Maybe he is good news. But maybe he won't be.

[flying_blind]

61. http://reclaimdemocracy.org/personhood/

Our Bill of Rights was the result of tremendous efforts to institutionalize and protect the rights of human beings. It strengthened the premise of our Constitution: that the people are the root of all power and authority for government. This vision has made our Constitution and government a model emulated in many nations.

But corporate lawyers (acting as both attorneys and judges) subverted our Bill of Rights in the late 1800's by establishing the doctrine of "corporate personhood" -- the claim that corporations were intended to fully enjoy the legal status and protections created for human beings.

We believe that corporations are not persons and possess only the privileges we willfully grant them. Granting corporations the status of legal "persons" effectively rewrites the Constitution to serve corporate interests as though they were human interests. Ultimately, the doctrine of granting constitutional rights to corporations gives a thing illegitimate privilege and power that undermines our freedom and authority as citizens. While corporations are setting the agenda on issues in our Congress and courts, We the People are not; for we can never speak as loudly with our own voices as corporations can with the unlimited amplification of money.
http://reclaimdemocracy.org/personhood/