Saturday, April 7, 2012

Fran Townsend's Latest Board Slot - SAP NS2

The Government Corporate Monstrosity (GCM), Eisenhower's Military Industrial Complex on trillions in federal steroids, is multi-layered.  Note:  Frances Fragos Townsend picked up another board slot in this MarketWatch press release..   

"SAP NS2 and its parent companies enjoy the trust of national security and intelligence agencies and the leading companies in critical economic sectors," says Frances Townsend, chairman of the SAP NS2 Board of Directors and former Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. "Some of the most demanding and security-sensitive applications and databases in the world run on SAP and Sybase technology, delivered by SAP NS2." 

Add another notch in her GCM rope.  Fran sits on the board of SIGA Technologies, a MacAndrews & Forbes holding.  Their latest DEF-14a stated:

Frances Fragos Townsend has served as a director of SIGA since March 2011. Ms. Townsend is Senior Vice President of Worldwide Government, Legal and Business Affairs at MacAndrews Holdings and has held this position since October 2010. Ms Townsend previously served as Homeland Security Advisor to President George W. Bush from May 2005 until January 2008.

In the above role, Fran conducted the post-mortem on the Bush White House's Hurricane Katrina response.  She omitted any mention of the hospital with the highest patient death toll, LifeCare Hospital of New Orleans, which lost 25 patients in Katrina's aftermath.   The politically connected Carlyle Group purchased LifeCare weeks before Katrina struck.  For what I view as gross incompetence, Fran landed a number of key assignments and board appointments.

Ms. Townsend also currently is an on-air contributor for CNN as a counterterrorism, national and homeland security expert. She serves as director of DRS Technologies and Thomson Reuters in addition to numerous government advisory and nonprofit boards. Ms. Townsend is the chairperson of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission. Her extensive experience in government, combined with her legal acumen, is ideally suited for our business.
Her experience may benefit SIGA Technologies, Scientific Games, DRS Technologies, SAP NS2, MacAndrews & Forbes, and Monument Capital.  It's a shame CNN and Thomson Reuters can't figure it out.

Fran's riding the GCM for all its worth.  . There are no lone wolves in the GCM, where loyalty to the pack leader is critical.  She runs with the Red Pack, but started with the Blue Team under President Clinton.  Clinton's "good ole boy" intelligentsia hid his corporatist ties.

Fran proudly wears her corporatism.  How much revenue does Uncle Sam provide to Fran tied companies?  One might expect SAP NS2 to have that information in their database.  How long before that data dump?

Update 11-1-15:  Fran joined the Advisory Board of Protivit earlier this year.