Charles. E. Cobb. Topic: The Case for Free Trade and Globalism.
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 &l squo;60s and instead kicked us off the farm and forced us to find other job s and professions. This did not happen in many European countries and they have incredibly high tariffs on most food products to protect their i nefficient agriculture. One economist states that most cows in Switze rland receive a $3/day subsidy – an amount greater than billions of h umans 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. & nbsp; &nbs p;
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 a nd Disney Development Company during the 1970s and 1980s. Arvida was a public company and then a subsidiary of Penn Central and later of Walt Di sney 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-i ndustry company that had approximately 40,000 employees. He led a lev eraged buy-out of Arvida from Penn Central with the Bass family of Texas an d subsequently merged Arvida with Walt Disney. Earlier he was an inve stment manager with Dodge & Cox and the CEO of subsidiaries of Kaiser A luminum.
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. Ambas sador Cobb created the Charles E. Cobb Award for Initiative and Success in Trade Development within the U.S. Department of State that is awarded annua lly to the career ambassador who best leads U.S. trade policy.
Co mmunity Development Career: In his 50 years as CEO of Arvida, Disney De velopment, Kaiser Community Development, and Cobb Partners, Cobb has had th e responsibility for the development of more than fifty new towns and maste r-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 an d many others. Noted planner Kalvin Platt has chronicled Cobb's c areer in a book entitled Master-Planned Communities, Lessons from the D evelopments of Chuck Cobb, which was published by the Urban Land Insti tute.
Education Involvement: Cobb was educated at Stanford Un iversity 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 c hair or past chair of the trustees for over forty years. He is a form er trustee of the Stanford Business School Trust Fund, a member of the Advi sory Council for the Stanford Business School, and the past president of tw o 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 Sou th Florida Annenberg Challenge, a director of the Council for Educational C hange and a former member of the Florida Governor’s Commission on Edu cation.
Directorships and Civic Affairs: Cobb has served on t he 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). C obb has been an officer and/or member of the Executive Committee of The Flo rida Council of 100 (chair 2000-2002), Florida Chamber of Commerce, the Sou th Florida Coordinating Council (chair 1980-1986), the Greater Miami Chambe r of Commerce and several other economic development organizations. Cobb al so serves on the board and investment committees for the University of Miam i, 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 Resear ch Institute, Plymouth Congregational Church, and Cobb Family Foundation. H e was the co-chair of the committee that secured $9 billion of federal fund s for South Florida after Hurricane Andrew. Other civic boards and me mberships include The American-Scandinavian Foundation, Icelandic-American Chamber of Commerce, Council on Foreign Relations, Urban Land Institute, an d Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
Honors: Cobb has received the Order of the Falcon Grand Cross Star from the Nation of Iceland (Icela nd’s highest honor to a non-Icelandic citizen), The Florida Council o f 100 Governor’s Award, NCCJ Silver Medallion Award, South Florida Ac hievement of the Decade Award, Junior Achievement Hall of Fame, United Way Tocqueville Award, Harvard Business Club of South Florida Business Statesma n of the Year, Chief Executive Officer Annual Award for the Hotel and Real Estate Industry, Honorary Doctorate from Barry University, Liberty Bell Awa rd for Florida Higher Education and was a member of the U.S. Olympic Team a s an alternate in the 110m high hurdles in 1960.
Fam ily: Cobb has been married since 1959 to Ambassador Sue McCourt Cobb, f ormer U.S. ambassador to Jamaica and secretary of state of Florida. A mbassador 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 wit h a book entitled The Edge of Everest. They have two sons, C hristian (architect and Harvard MBA) and Tobin (investment banker and NYU M BA), 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.
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