Buttigieg Asks McKinsey to Let Him Release Names of Clients
Buttigieg Asks McKinsey to Let Him Release Names of Clients
(Bloomberg) -- Pete Buttigieg on Friday called on McKinsey & Co. to release him from a nondisclosure agreement, asking the management consulting firm to allow him to make public the names of his clients.
Buttigieg has faced increasing scrutiny in recent weeks over tenure at McKinsey from 2007 to 2010 and the nature of his work -- including from a Democratic rival, Senator Elizabeth Warren. But Buttigieg is prohibited by the agreement from naming his clients.
“This company must recognize the importance of transparency in the exceptional case of a former employee becoming a competitive candidate for the U.S. presidency,” Buttigieg said in a statement.
He added: “I understand why some are calling on me to break the agreement. But, it’s important to me to keep my word and commitments. I know the American people also want a president who they can trust to do the same.”
On Thursday, Warren on called on Buttigieg to release the names of his McKinsey clients. “I think that voters want to know about possible conflicts of interest,” she told reporters at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Boston.
Warren, who herself has faced questions about her time as a lawyer in the private sector, was responding to a question about an article published by the New York Times Editorial Board on Thursday that called on Buttigieg to release the names.
Buttigieg, who throughout his political career has emphasized his private sector work, has been critical of the consulting giant, in particular for its work on opioids and migrant detention.
“As somebody who left the firm a decade ago, seeing what certain people in that firm have decided to do is extremely frustrating and extremely disappointing,” Buttigieg told reporters this week.
He said Friday that his campaign had contacted McKinsey last month asking for him to be released from the confidentiality agreement, and hadn’t received a response. In November, he released his tax returns covering his time there.
Buttigieg also provided a timeline of his work at McKinsey, giving additional details of the type of work he did and the location. His projects included work in the health care, grocery and environment industries.
“The bulk of my work on these teams consisted of doing mathematical analysis, conducting research, and preparing presentations,” he said in the statement. “I never worked on a project inconsistent with my values, and if asked to do so, I would have left the firm rather than participate.”
(Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)
To contact the reporter on this story: Tyler Pager in Washington at tpager1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max Berley, John Harney
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.