Overview
Daniel Kingsley graduated from Princeton University. He served in the Army Security Agency from 1954 to 1956 and prior to coming to Washington started a successful lumber manufacturing business. During the Nixon Administration he served as Special Assistant to the President and Director of Presidential Personnel in the White House. He was also Commissioner of the General Services Administration and as such was responsible for more than $14 billion in federal property and for oversight of the Strategic and Critical Materials Reserve. During the Ford Administration he served as Chief Operating Officer of the Small Business Administration. He was Executive Vice President, Partner, and Managing Director of the Washington office of Deaver and Hannaford, a national public relations firm and has represented numerous notable figures and bodies, including former President Ronald Reagan, the Government of Taiwan, the Northwest Alaskan Gas Company, Merrill Lynch, Century 21, and the National Football League, among others. For twenty-two years he served as CEO of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), building it from 65 firms in 1977 to 350 firms in 1999. He also created and managed the American Entrepreneurs for Economic Growth (AEEG), an affiliate of the NVCA which represents the public policy interests of emerging companies in America. He retired in 1999.
About the Transcript
In his interview Kingsley begins by describing his work managing his Portland lumber company. He describes how he became involved in politics by becoming one of Nixon’s advance men for the Eisenhower family. He was then hired by President Richard Nixon as Commissioner of the General Services Administration and accepted the position of Director of Presidential Personnel in 1971, a few months before Barbara Franklin’s arrival in the White House. He wanted to stay in the White House and work in the Defense Department, perhaps as a secretary of Personnel, but was not able to do so after the Watergate scandal emerged. After a year he was able to obtain a position as Chief Operations Officer of the Small Business Administration, where he remained during the Ford Administration. He then discusses his work at Deaver and Hannaford and at the National Venture Capital Association. The discussion then returns to the Nixon Administration and his experiences in the Personnel Office during Barbara Franklin’s tenure.