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Adjunct Professor
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Nominated by President George Bush to be the United States Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Zimbabwe, Steve Rhodes served his country diligently. Bringing with him his development and financial management expertise, he established new lines of communication with the Zimbabwe government, resulting in a better bilateral relationship. During his tenure he developed and implemented United States foreign policy in Zimbabwe. Rhodes established, coordinated, and implemented management goals for the United States Embassy, the United State Agency for International Development, and the United States Information Services; which included 110 employees. Steve, most notably, headed the team that negotiated the signing of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation Agreement and successfully negotiated a treaty to establish the Peace Corps in Zimbabwe.
Presently, Ambassador Rhodes is an Adjunct Professor in the Negotiation, Conflict Resolution and Peace Building Department at California State University Dominguez Hills where he teaches the International Component. Additionally, Ambassador Rhodes is a Visiting Professor at Loyola Marymount University and the University of California Los Angeles.
As Managing Partner of Claiborne-Rhodes International, LLC. Ambassador J. Steven (Steve) Rhodes is a leader in socially conscious proprietary business development. With expertise in oil, gas, and new energy models, Steve has successfully negotiated acquisition of asset management businesses and represents minority professional services companies.
In 2004, Steve Rhodes was appointed as a Governor to the California Community College Board by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Board of Governors establishes policy for all the community colleges in the State of California.
Steve Rhodes is an expert in marketing and development of strategic international and domestic public- private partnerships and municipal investments which have resulted in over one billion of dollars in bond issues. While Director on the Board of Directors for Ivanhoe Energy Incorporated, he succeeded in signing the largest oil field development contract in Ecuador’s history.
In his role as Senior Vice President at First Southwest Company, Steve Rhodes directed the marketing strategies to underwrite bond issues for the State of California and other municipal issues in California and the western region. He successfully established the firm’s presence in California such that the firm was routinely asked to respond to bond issues under consideration by the State of California and other California municipal issues.
Working with William E. Simon and Sons, as the Vice President for Public Finance, Steve was directly responsible for the marketing and technical services of the firm in the western United States, with secondary responsibility in other areas of the country. He initiated and cultivated the firm’s relationship with the State of California, the second-largest issuers of tax-exempt bonds in the United States.
At Comet Rice of Jamaica, Ltd., he was Vice President and General Manager recruited to invigorate the Caribbean division of the company, a fully integrated rice company involved in the growing, importing and packaging of various rice products. Steve Rhodes provided the vision and financial strategies to bring the business to an ascending trajectory. He developed a diversified list of distributors to increase the company’s market penetration and supervised the establishment of manufacturing and administration procedures. These initiatives were responsible for the company’s sales growth to $10 million per year and the second-largest supplier of rice in Jamaica.
As a Managing Director for Smith Harris Barney Upham and Company, Steve Rhodes set and achieved management goals for firm’s Southern California Public Finance office. He directed the marketing strategies to underwrite bond issues for the State of California and Southern California municipal bond issuers while coordinating policy development with the San Francisco office. Steve Rhodes opened the Southern California office and assembled the team that elevated Smith Barney’s ranking from seventh to second in the State for total public financing. He led teams that were selected to manage the largest financing ever offered by the City of Los Angeles and Orange County, California.
Prior to being recruited to Smith Barney and Upham, Steve Rhodes served in The White House as the Chief Domestic Advisor to Vice President George Bush. He was the primary liaison to business community for the Vice President and managed political and constituent outreach for support of administration policy. Steve Rhodes led major national domestic policy initiatives and prepared the Vice President for the 1984 Presidential Debate. Two major accomplishments include the creation and management of the Southwest Border Task Force and direct advisement with the senior leadership team culminating in the creation of the Bill for the establishment of the Martin Luther King National Holiday.
While Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan for Intergovernmental Affairs, Steve Rhodes represented the President to local elected officials from over 3,900 counties and 15,000 cities. He presented the views of local officials to the President on administration policy, developed positive working relationships with public interest groups, and representing local officials. Rhodes worked with the Domestic Cabinet in the creation of the Administration’s Urban Policy. He successfully built a coalition of the local government public interest groups to support the President’s economic recovery plan. Steve Rhodes was a member of the team responsible for the Block Grants to the States program.
Steve Rhodes began his professional career with Kraft and Dart, Incorporated as Director for Public Affairs. He was responsible for the implementation of all programs demonstrating that Dart & Kraft is a socially responsible corporation. He received a Masters of Business Administration, Marketing emphasis from Pepperdine University and a Bachelors of Business Administration, Industrial Relations concentration from Loyola University in Los Angeles. Steve resides in Los Angeles and remains an active member of several boards and community organizations that focus on political initiatives, social change and education.