Jamie Rubin gained fame as a spokesman for the U.S. State Department during military crises in Iraq and Kosovo. Now the arms control expert will be fronting for a whole new set of customers. Rubin last month became a partner at Brunswick, one of London’s leading public relations firms, with clients such as British Airways and Marks & Spencer.
A trusted aide to former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, Rubin left the Clinton administration 13 months ago and settled in London with his wife, CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour. There Rubin spent his time feeding and caring for the couple’s infant son, Darius.
The new post gives Rubin an opportunity to teach - and preach - about international relations. “One of the reasons I took this job is that it allows me to spend about 30 percent of my time lecturing at the London School of Economics and commenting and writing for news organizations like the Financial Times, the BBC and CNN.” And there’s always a possible return to public service. “Given who’s president, I’m really not missing much in Washington these days. But four years from now, when the election comes around, I’ll certainly be on hand.”
The 41-year-old Rubin concedes that the new post will require some on-the-job learning: “If someone was talking about price-earnings ratios in a complex financial transaction, I would not know what they were talking about.” But he knows all about spin. “The whole art of communication in a 24-hour news cycle is something I know well. If clients get in trouble, hopefully I will have some idea of how events have gone wrong and how to put them right.”
