The Issues
In 2004, Froman heard his long-lost buddy was planning to run for the Illinois Senate. Froman called up Obama and offered his help, which Obama accepted.
The offer of assistance would continue throughout the 2008 presidential campaign, as the Citigroup manager had a long list of New York finance friends who would be willing to part with some cash for the right cause. Froman helped to get Obama in the door, and even persuaded certain financiers, who had strong ties in the community, to support Obama.
One example was the courting of Orin Kramer, who had raised “mountainous stacks of cash for [Al] Gore and [John F.] Kerry,” according to New York magazine. Kramer had supported the Clintons for years, and essentially owned “New Jersey when it comes to raising money," said fund manager and member of Obama’s New York finance committee Jim Torrey.
Early in Obama’s Democratic primary campaign, Froman helped set up a dinner for Obama and Kramer, and others, in Washington, D.C.. After dinner Kramer was still unsure about the candidate, but as Froman, Kramer and fellow Obama finance committee member Brian Mathis sat in an airport waiting for a shuttle back to New York, Froman and Mathis continued to nag Kramer. Finally, Kramer submitted. “All right, enough already,” Kramer yelled, and immediately announced his defection from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s camp to the Obama campaign. Kramer worked as an Obama bundler, raising more than $500,000 during the 2008 presidential campaign.
When it came to divvying up jobs in the administration, Froman didn’t seem to expect a position. As he told his hometown paper, the Marin International Journal, shortly after the election, "My expectation is I'm doing this for the period of the transition, and that I'll return full-time to my business when this is over.”
That didn’t happen; Obama appointed Froman as an international economics adviser in January 2009. He had already left the states to work in his new position overseas, at the time of his announcement.
International Expertise
Froman has a long history of providing analysis on international economics in the public sector. He has a doctorate of international economics from Oxford and has advised some of the brightest economic minds, like Rubin, on the subject.
Froman’s job will be to minimize the effect of America’s economic struggles on the rest of the world, and advise countries on ways to turn around their respective economies. The Obama administration argues that strong world economies will help quicken the American economic recovery process.
Although Froman has worked most of his life in the U.S., he has spent some time overseas. After Harvard law, he lived in Albania where he and his his wife, Nancy Goodman, worked on a legal reform initiative sponsored by the American Bar Association.
According to the New York Times, Froman worked to develop Albanian property laws and rights for prisoners in Albanian jails. He spent six months working in the Eastern European country.
