Before Bush was elected President of the United States Foley was a venture capitalis. He began at McKinsey & Company and then moved on to Citicorp Venture Capital. He founded NTC Group, a private equity investing business, in 1985.

 

From August 2003 through March 2004, Foley served in Iraq as the Director of Private Sector Development for the Coalition Provisional Authority. He oversaw most of Iraq’s state-owned enterprises, developed foreign trade and investment, and managed three state ministries. In this position, Foley was seen by many more as a plunderer than as a developer. He tried to privatize 150 state-owned companies, but the Iraqis did not trust his plan and he had to give it up. In his attempt to lure U.S. companies to invest in Iraq, ne compared the security dangers “to skydiving or riding a motorcycle, which are, to many, very acceptable risks.”

 

 A major Republican fundraiser, since 1993, Foley has himself donated $144,100 to various Republican causes and candidates, including Sandy Treadwell, Christopher Shays, Mitch McConnell, John Sununu, Paul Coverdell, John Warner, Chuck Hagel, Newt Gingrich, Elizabeth Dole, John McCain and George W. Bush. In 2000, he served as Connecticut finance chair for the Bush-Cheny campaign.

 

Thomas C. Foley’s Official Biography

Ties to GOP Trumped Know-How Among Staff Sent to Rebuild Iraq (by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post)