Ambassador Who

Ambassador Who?

John V. Roos

It is fair to say that most people in Japan have never heard of John V. Roos, a corporate lawyer from California. Even those who have heard the name do not understand why he has been appointed by President Barack Obama as Ambassador of the United States to Japan.

Others seemed more obvious choices. Many predicted that Joseph Nye, a Professor and former Dean at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense known for his theory of “soft power” and one with a long connection to Japan, would be the right man for the job. Mr. Roos, in contrast, has no experience as a diplomat or in issues of national security -- or even within government. He has little obvious connection with Japan. Why was he chosen?

Perhaps I can explain from my own perspective as a fellow corporate lawyer and knowledge of his unique professional qualifications.

First, Mr. Roos has a special relationship with President Obama. From the early days of Obama’s presidential election campaign, even before Obama announced as a candidate, Mr. Roos stepped forward as a major fundraiser. As is true everywhere, election campaigns require money. It is important to understand how influential Silicon Valley was in transforming this fund-raising process and in getting Mr. Obama, an outsider, elected. Technology played a role and so did individuals. Officially, Mr. Roos is credited with “bundling” contributions totaling over $500,000 for Obama. In reality, his role was far greater. As an example, even before the formal campaign, at an exploratory committee meeting at John Roos’s house, checks were signed for $300,000. Later, one event in San Francisco raised over $8 million. Mr. Roos was head of the campaign in Northern California, including San Francisco and Silicon Valley, key centers of Obama support. Per official reports, California donors gave 13 percent of all contributions in the United States, about $96 million. According to one report, Mr. Roos can share credit for raising about $75 million, which would generate a lot of gratitude.

Obama and Roos are of almost the same generation (ages 48 and 54) and are culturally and intellectually similar. Both were brilliant graduates of leading law schools, Harvard and Stanford. Both took somewhat risk-taking career choices. One can easily see a common personal bond.

Mr. Roos did not work in the public sector, but has long been interested in politics. He took off one year as a student at Stanford Law School to serve as a White House Fellow, a very prestigious role. Later, as a lawyer in Silicon Valley, he worked as a volunteer and fund raiser for the presidential campaigns of Vice President Walter Mondale (later Ambassador to Japan) and Bill Bradley, former Senator from New Jersey and famous professional basketball player. Later he was northern California finance chair for John Kerry’s presidential campaign against George W. Bush. He thus has long ties with key members at the highest levels of the Democratic Party.

His professional career also helps explain why Roos and Obama connect so well. Roos began as a trial lawyer in Los Angeles with O’Melveny & Myers, a very large, established law firm. Four years later, he took a year off to work on the Mondale presidential campaign. After that, he sought a job at the much smaller but dynamic Silicon Valley firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, known for its representation of high technology, life science (biotech) and high growth companies. Rather than join the trial group, which would quickly lead to partnership, he purposely took a step backward to start as a novice in the corporate law group, in order to focus on startups, M&A, and turning small growth companies into publicly listed companies. This of course is the hot legal specialty in Silicon Valley, famous for dramatic growth and immense fortunes of young entrepreneurs. Among the firm’s clients with whom Mr. Roos worked are Google, eBay, Pixar, HP and Sun Microsystems, along with many venture capital firms.

Over time, Roos rose to become the firm’s managing director responsible for resource allocation, planning, hiring and business development, before becoming CEO in 2005. Over that period Wilson Sonsini had grown from 50 to 600 lawyers and more than 1,500 employees, with eight offices in the US and one in Shanghai. Its client base includes 300 public companies and over 3,000 private ones.

Obama clearly excited the Silicon Valley community, which saw in him their kind of man. As Roos has said,

“When may of us first met with him, Obama was a classic Silicon Valley startup. Literally, he had to make the decision to run within [a] couple of weeks . . . and in that period he sought startup financing to get off the ground. You had an unbelievable political brand in the Clintons, and this young rising star taking that on as a long shot. If you look at any startup, Google being a prime example, the initial odds are typically viewed as being almost insurmountable. But we take those kinds of bets.”

Beyond that, it is clear that Obama and Roos share a deep understanding of the value of modern technology and how to use it. In his activities in Silicon Valley, Roos has been in the epicenter of commercializing and bringing to fruition a wide range of things that can be critical to advancing Japan as a knowledge-based economy. People alert to Japan’s needs can appreciate what he may do for the ongoing relationships – economic and otherwise – between the two countries.

One insightful analysis about Obama’s campaign in The Atlantic magazine said

[I]n Silicon Valley’s unique reckoning, what everyone else considered to be Obama’s major shortcomings—his youth, his inexperience—here counted as prime assets.

I asked Roos, the personification of a buttoned-down corporate attorney, if there had been concerns about Obama’s limited CV, and for a moment he looked as if he might burst out laughing. “No one in Silicon Valley sits here and thinks, ‘You need massive inside-the-Beltway experience,’” he explained, after a diplomatic pause. “Sergey and Larry were in their early 20s when they started Google. The YouTube guys were also in their 20s. So were the guys who started Facebook. And I’ll tell you, we recognize what great companies have been built on, and that’s ideas, talent, and inspirational leadership.”

In a very real sense, the same might be said about Mr. Roos and his prospects as a diplomat in Japan.

There are many differing stories about the selection of Mr. Roos. Some say the post of ambassador was first offered to Joe Nye and others with long government experience, all of whom declined, before it was offered to Roos. Others speculate that because Nye is 72 or was the preferred choice of Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, Obama wanted a loyalist or someone who might be more energetic or innovative. There can be no doubt that Roos is highly respected by Obama. One report even says that Roos could have had several jobs in the Obama Administration, but he strongly preferred Ambassador to Japan.

Whatever the case, Mr. Roos has already presented his credentials and is enthusiastically moving forward in his new role. My view? He’ll be a great one.