Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Banned in Boston.

From Monday through Thursday of this week, 15,000 leaders with involvement in the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) are gathering at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

Today, Tuesday, Henry Paulson and Robert Rubin – both  former Wall Street heavyweights – were, according to an early afternoon dispatch from Business Updates, featured keynote speakers at a luncheon discussion at that Convention in Boston.

Both men are former Treasury Secretaries. Paulson, is also a prior Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs and subsequently became U.S. Treasury Secretary in the early days of the Obama administration.  He was heavily involved in crafting the $700 billion bank bailout during the 2008 Great Recession.

Similarly, Rubin served as the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under the Clinton Administration.  He also shares an analogous Goldman Sachs background in that Rubin served for 26 years in various positions with Goldman Sachs, including a two-year stint as Co-Chairman.  Mr. Rubin also held other high-ranking positions at Citigroup, including that of Chairman.

However, an odd thing happened on the way to today’s luncheon: 

Business Updates, a featured service of Boston.com, reported this afternoon that although “BIO is allowing trade press to cover the event, . . . the Biotechnology Industry Organization has banned mainstream media from covering Tuesday’s keynote luncheon”  featuring Messrs. Paulson and Rubin, and “. . . a BIO spokesman said that media access is determined on a case by case basis.”

Too bad:  All business people and thought leaders in this country would benefit tremendously from access to a full-length video or transcript of that discussion.  BIO should release a complete public record of that luncheon.

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