- Later he served as executive director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership and in a volunteer capacity as Donald J. Trump's U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine until his resignation on September 27, 2019.
Volker went into the private sector in 2009, becoming an independent director at The Wall Street Fund Inc,[11] where he worked until 2012. He was a member of the board of directors at Capital Guardian Funds Trust[12] beginning in 2013.[13] Volker was also an independent director at Evercore Wealth Management Macro Opportunity Fund until 2012.[14]
Volker served as a senior advisor at McLarty Associates, a global consulting firm from 2010 to 2011.
In 2011, he joined BGR Group, a Washington-based lobbying firm and investment bank, where he currently serves as a managing director in the firm's international group.[15]
He then became executive director of Arizona State University's McCain Institute for International Leadership[16] when it was launched[17] in 2012. He resigned in 2019.[18]
He has been a Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies since September 2009, and a senior advisor at the Atlantic Council since October 2009.
- Volker is currently listed as a trustee at the CG Funds Trust,[19] and a member of the board of trustees at The American College of the Mediterranean (ACM), an American-style degree-granting institution in Aix-en-Provence, France.
- As an undergraduate, he was enrolled at ACM's study abroad institute, IAU College.
- He is also a member of the board of directors at The Hungary Initiatives Foundation.[20] In addition, Volker is a member of the Atlantic Partnership.[21]
Ukrainian media reported in June 2021 that Kurt Volker represents US investors that co-founded American University Kyiv in partnership with Arizona State University.[22]
Trump–Ukraine[edit]
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In mid-September 2019, reports began to surface suggesting that a whistleblower complaint had been submitted to Michael K. Atkinson, the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, which he found to be credible and a matter of "urgent concern".[26] Subsequently, claims were advanced by various chairmen of U.S. House committees that Kurt Volker, while acting in his official capacity as US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations, had been told by the White House "to intercede with President Zelensky" about investigations regarding Joe Biden and Paul Manafort.[27] Volker met with Zelensky the day after President Trump spoke by phone with the Ukrainian president,[28] a call which would later reportedly result in a whistleblower complaint.[29] Two days after Volker's meeting, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Dan Coats resigned, resulting in a stand-off regarding whether the new acting DNI would share the complaint with Congress.
On September 26, 2019, the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released the unclassified text of this whistleblower complaint regarding the interactions between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.[30] In this document, Volker, along with US Ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, were described as having "provided advice to the Ukrainian leadership about how to 'navigate' the request that the President had made of Mr. Zelensky".[31]
That same day Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani posted on Twitter a screenshot that purported to be a text message from Volker to Giuliani, stating, "Mr. Mayor -- really enjoyed breakfast this morning. As discussed, connecting you here with Andrey Yermak [Wikidata],[32] who is very close to President Zelensky. I suggest we schedule a call together on Monday -- maybe 10am or 11am Washington time? Kurt".[33][34]
NBC News has reported, in regard to the Volker text that Giuliani allegedly received, "Whether Volker was acting on orders from Trump is unclear, and the State Department hasn't said why Volker made the introduction, other than that the Ukrainian aide requested it. But the introduction ultimately led to a meeting between Yermak and Giuliani in Spain that the whistleblower wrote was a 'direct follow-up' to Trump's call."[24]
In the White House memorandum of the July 25 telephone call between the two presidents, President Zelensky is quoted as saying, "I will personally tell you that one of my assistants spoke with Mr. Giuliani just recently and we are hoping very much that Mr. Giuliani will be able to travel to Ukraine and we will meet once he comes to Ukraine."[35] Notably, the date on the screenshot of the purported text message from Volker to Giuliani is July 19, six days earlier.[34]
On September 27, 2019, Volker resigned hours after congressional Democrats announced he would be called to provide a deposition.[4][36]
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