Date: 6.1.1998
TIMOTHY WIRTH, 58, has a lot of people drooling. Wirth has been chosen by media mogul Ted Turner to spend the $1 billion Turner pledged last September to the United Nations.
As a former U.S. senator, Wirth knows how to spend other people's money. We met him at a seafood restaurant near the U.N., where Wirth is much in demand these days. When you've got $1 billion to give away, lots of people want your ear.
Twenty minutes late, Wirth arrives. Before answering my first question, he's left the table for the first of several phone calls. Wirth apparently has several qualifications for the new job of president of the United Nations Foundation. Besides being an ex-senator from Colorado, he's an ardent environmentalist and has worked in the State Department as undersecretary of state for global affairs.
Between his telephone calls, I ask Wirth to review his accomplishments in the State Department. He mentions two U.N.-sponsored conferences one on women's issues, the other on population control. I was surprised he left out the U.N. conference on climate control, held in Kyoto in November. That could be because in the final moments of preparation for the conference, Wirth the lead negotiator decided not to go. The result: a huge embarrassment to the U.S. delegation trying to negotiate the treaty to reduce greenhouse gases.
Still, we were here to talk about the future, not about the past. What are Wirth's plans for Turner's money? He began by saying, "We feel it is important to keep a narrow focus." His list, however, is anything but modest. He would like to tackle population control, empower women and protect the environment and children's health. Oh, yes. Then there are those pet causes of U.N. Secretary-General Kofu Anon, which include its-bitsy issues like the global drug trade and emergency relief. Wait a minute--there's more. Public relations, or "telling the U.N. story," as Wirth puts it, will get Turner money.
Apparently, the U.N. public information staff of over 700 can't get this done.
Wirth would also like to create a U.N. news wire like Greener, the news service for environmental groups. Then he'd like to set up an Internet site for foundation activities, like his population control conference, "to keep the networking alive."
Uh-oh, another phone call. This time it's from the Group of 77, a coalition of Third World countries that are getting in line for a handout. Of course, handing out all this cash requires staff, right? Wirth is creating a mini-U.N., with foundation offices in New York and Washington, D.C., and 35 employees. The U.N. will also house staff to screen calls to the foundation.
Along with Wirth, environmentalist Maurice Strong (FORBES, Jan. 12) and civil rights activist Andrew Young will be listed as founding directors of the foundation. Wirth says he hopes Ted Turner won't be this new outfit's only sugar daddy. "Finding other Ted Turners," he says, is a priority. Interesting.
When he announced in 1992 that he wasn't running for reelection to the Senate, Wirth cited his distaste for fund-raising as a major reason. "Before, I was selling my soul," he explains. " This has a nobility to it."
In 1992 Wirth made himself unpopular in Washington when he wrote an article for the New York Times magazine about why he was not running for reelection. The article was a scathing indictment of the political process, and managed to alienate members of both the right and left, as well as many of his financial supporters.
Congress "made me a person I don't like," he wrote. Now he has found what he regards as a noble calling. Filet of s I wonder how long Ted's billion to be funded by sales of 18 million of his Time Warner shares will last. Ted, have you thought about selling more stock?
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