Charles. E. Cobb.   Topic:  The Case for Free Trade and Globalism.  

One of the subjects I like to talk about that I think might be interesting to your group is how important free trade and globalism is to our country.  I am really concerned the Obama/Trump/Biden agendas against free trade have hurt U.S. competitiveness, hurt our U.S. per capita income and hurt the U.S. quality of life. 

I totally understand how several million people have lost their manufacturing jobs to globalization as I personally have experience with the 100 million Americans who lost their livelihoods because of uncompetitive agricultural pursuits.  Fortunately our national leaders did not put up tariffs to protect unproductive American agriculture workers in the ‘50s and ‘60s and instead kicked us off the farm and forced us to find other jobs and professions.  This did not happen in many European countries and they have incredibly high tariffs on most food products to protect their inefficient agriculture.  One economist states that most cows in Switzerland receive a $3/day subsidy – an amount greater than billions of humans on this planet – and the cost of milk and dairy products is sky high. 

As a former undersecretary of Commerce and ambassador, I am a strong advocate for free and fair trade.                                                     

Corporate Career: Chuck Cobb is the CEO and senior managing director of Cobb Partners, Ltd., an investment firm.  He was the chair and CEO of Arvida Corporation and Disney Development Company during the 1970s and 1980s.  Arvida was a public company and then a subsidiary of Penn Central and later of Walt Disney Company.  He also served as a member of the Walt Disney Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the Disney Board.  Earlier he was the COO and a board of director of Penn Central Corporation, a multi-industry company that had approximately 40,000 employees.  He led a leveraged buy-out of Arvida from Penn Central with the Bass family of Texas and subsequently merged Arvida with Walt Disney.  Earlier he was an investment manager with Dodge & Cox and the CEO of subsidiaries of Kaiser Aluminum. 

Government Career: Ambassador Cobb was the U.S. ambassador to Iceland during the George H. W. Bush administration.  During the Reagan administration, he served as undersecretary and assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Commerce.  In the 1950s he served as an officer in the U.S. Navy.  Florida Governor Jeb Bush appointed Ambassador Cobb as chair of Florida FTAA and Gateway Florida, which had the responsibility for Florida’s international trade agenda.  Ambassador Cobb created the Charles E. Cobb Award for Initiative and Success in Trade Development within the U.S. Department of State that is awarded annually to the career ambassador who best leads U.S. trade policy.

Community Development Career: In his 50 years as CEO of Arvida, Disney Development, Kaiser Community Development, and Cobb Partners, Cobb has had the responsibility for the development of more than fifty new towns and master-planned communities including McCormick Ranch, Boca Resort and Club, Boca West, Sawgrass, Weston, Long Boat Key Club, Walt Disney World, Euro Disney, Cocoplum, Telluride, Kirkwood Mountain Resort, Durango Mountain Resort and many others.  Noted planner Kalvin Platt has chronicled Cobb's career in a book entitled Master-Planned Communities, Lessons from the Developments of Chuck Cobb, which was published by the Urban Land Institute.

Education Involvement: Cobb was educated at Stanford University where he received a BA and MBA.  He is the past chair of the Board of Trustees of the University of Miami, having been the chair, vice chair or past chair of the trustees for over forty years.  He is a former trustee of the Stanford Business School Trust Fund, a member of the Advisory Council for the Stanford Business School, and the past president of two Stanford alumni organizations.  He was the chair of the board of the Florida Business/Higher Education Partnership, the co-founder and chair of the trustees of the Barry University Charter School, a director of the South Florida Annenberg Challenge, a director of the Council for Educational Change and a former member of the Florida Governor’s Commission on Education.

Directorships and Civic Affairs: Cobb has served on the boards of nine publicly-traded corporations (Arvida, Penn Central, Walt Disney, LNR Property, WCI Communities, Ameritas, Pan Am Corporation, CLC of America, and Southeast Banking) and many private corporate boards (Florida Savings, Kirkwood, Durango, Telluride, Tubac, and Observer Media Group). Cobb has been an officer and/or member of the Executive Committee of The Florida Council of 100 (chair 2000-2002), Florida Chamber of Commerce, the South Florida Coordinating Council (chair 1980-1986), the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and several other economic development organizations. Cobb also serves on the board and investment committees for the University of Miami, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Eisenhower Fellowships, Orange Bowl Committee, Council of American Ambassadors, American Academy of Diplomacy, Florida’s $160 billion Pension Fund, Miami Heart Research Institute, Plymouth Congregational Church, and Cobb Family Foundation. He was the co-chair of the committee that secured $9 billion of federal funds for South Florida after Hurricane Andrew.  Other civic boards and memberships include The American-Scandinavian Foundation, Icelandic-American Chamber of Commerce, Council on Foreign Relations, Urban Land Institute, and Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Honors: Cobb has received the Order of the Falcon Grand Cross Star from the Nation of Iceland (Iceland’s highest honor to a non-Icelandic citizen), The Florida Council of 100 Governor’s Award, NCCJ Silver Medallion Award, South Florida Achievement of the Decade Award, Junior Achievement Hall of Fame, United Way Tocqueville Award, Harvard Business Club of South Florida Business Statesman of the Year, Chief Executive Officer Annual Award for the Hotel and Real Estate Industry, Honorary Doctorate from Barry University, Liberty Bell Award for Florida Higher Education and was a member of the U.S. Olympic Team as an alternate in the 110m high hurdles in 1960.   

Family: Cobb has been married since 1959 to Ambassador Sue McCourt Cobb, former U.S. ambassador to Jamaica and secretary of state of Florida.  Ambassador Sue is a lawyer, sportswoman, and author who chronicled her 1988 attempt to be the first U.S. woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest with a book entitled The Edge of Everest.  They have two sons, Christian (architect and Harvard MBA) and Tobin (investment banker and NYU MBA), who are owners of Florida real estate development company Grass River Property that has a portfolio of approximately $500 million of real estate under development.  They have seven grandchildren.