How a Private Corporation Controls Our Public Health

Written by Dr Urmie Ray on November 9, 2020. Posted in Current News

Together with other similar firms, Bain & Company, one of the top Inter-national American consultancy firms, is advising both the British[1] and Indian[2] governments on covid related policies. In France, the partnership goes further: as reported by the daily Libération in April, it has been entrusted by the government to steer the country’s covid testing strategy.[3]

According to the French Health Ministry, “Bain’s intervention is pro bono, hence free and without any compensation”.[4] In India,[5] it is also mainly pro bono, not so in Britain.[6] In the United States, the non-profit CDC Foundation, created by Congress in 1992 “to mobilize philanthropic and private-sector resources to support the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s crit-ical health protection work”,[7] is a client of Bain & Company’s non profit offspring Bridgespan, with which it continues to “collaborate closely”.[8]

Have governments set the fox among the chickens, and what fox? Welcome to the world of conflict of interests and tentacular control.

• Bain & Company

This top global management consultancy was founded in 1973 by Bill Bain (1937- 2018), a former partner of the Boston Consulting Group, another global management consultancy. Bain partners regularly sit on the board of the Federal Reserve.[9] This was notably the case between 2002[10] and 2005[11] of Orit Gadiesh, its chairman since 1993, who took over from Mitt Romney, its CEO for a brief period to save the firm from bankruptcy, which he did by obtaining a federal bailout paid by American taxpayers.[12] She has long been a member of the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum. In 2019, Bain & Company was accused of massive fraud “which contributed to the destruction of SARS [South African Revenue Service]”.[13]

• Bain and testing laboratories

Bain & Company is connected to major networks of medical biology laborato-ries, the French Biogroup-LCD,[14] the Swiss Unilabs,[15] and the former French, Cerba HealthCare, now one of the main international networks.[16] They are all involved in the testing process for Covid-19, the latter throughout the world.[17] In France it is one of the three laboratories centralizing the swabs and communicating the data daily transmitted by the private “monitoring system, called ‘3labos’ ”.[18]

• Bain and Digitalization

The digitalized future towards which lockdowns, quarantines and other mea-sures are orienting societies was unimaginable even a few months ago. A digitalized world is one where hyper-tracing and hyper-surveillance are eased and assured. An official document of the French ministry of Europe and For-eign Affairs, co-signed by a former Bain associate, admits and recommends the use of mass surveillance on the internet.[19]

Bain & Company has played a key role in the digital development right from the outset. Thanks to its former partner, Matthew Stasior, the sales of Microsoft, when it was still a startup, soared to $4 billion in a matter of six years.[20]

Regarding the health sector, before all appropriate tools were available, Bain & Company advocated its digitalization, in particular online consultations, thereby reducing diagnostics to a preestablished recipe founded on remotely transmitted numerical data.[21] As acknowledged on its site, the present situation is proving to be beneficial towards this end.[22]

3.1             Education

It is also a proponent of online teaching. In May, it partnered “on a pro-bono basis” with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the second largest state school district of the United States, in order to “evaluate and implement strategies to help teachers, students and families in remote, online learning”.[23] It should be noted that, as in the health sector, Bain’s solution for educational issues is to apply private sector management methods and push towards privatization.[24] In France[25] and Britain,[26] it already has a foothold in education.

3.2            E-Business

Alongside, Bain & Company has been encouraging e-businesses since 1999, when it created its subsidiary Bainlab to “consult with” e-business startups.[27] It then “launched BainNet, a global alliance of Internet-related so-lutions providers, in June 2000. The alliance is designed to bring together leading firms in a number of e-Business-related disciplines.” Continuing to quote market specialist Rob Leavitt, “Bain’s move represents an aggressive initiative into the e-World coming from the traditional, high-end management consulting firms”.[28] It is now advocating businesses to increase online services.[29]

• Vaccines, a promising future market

Already in 2011, Bain & Company envisaged a most promising future for vaccines in the age of globalization.[30] It is therefore not surprising that it is closely associated with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,[31][32] which is presently collaborating with big pharma “to accelerate the development, manufacture, and delivery of vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments for COVID-19”.[33]   “ Investing in global health organizations aimed at increasing access to vaccines created a 20-to-1 return in economic benefit”, as avowed by Bill Gates himself, namely $200 billion over a period of 20 years for the $10 billion invested.

This he acknowledged to be his “best investment”.[34] Philanthropy pays! But at what cost? In 2007, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation joined the “Global Polio Eradication Initiative to help eliminate the disease through a mass immunization campaign … contributing nearly $3 billion”.[35] In September 2020, the World Health Organization recognized that “a new polio outbreak in Sudan [is] caused by oral vaccine”.[36] In India, according to a 2018 study published in the International Journal of Environmental Re-search and Public Health,[37] it led to 491 000 cases of paralysis between 2000 and 2007.

This is still not officially admitted, and in 2019, the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, where the head of “a government-appointed panel that conducted a study” on covid issues is a professor at,[38] “launched in Pune a Vaccination on Wheels Clinic … in collaboration with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation”.[39] In both France and the United Kingdom, this foundation funds major universities and institutes whose members are influencing government policies regarding Covid-19.[40]

Interestingly, infectious disease specialist Didier Raoult, who promoted the cheaper drug hydroxychloroquine, and predicted in March that the “problem of SARS-CoV-2 is probably overestimated, as 2.6 million people die of respiratory infections each year”,[41] is a professor at the Marseille School of Medicine, which does not seem to be a recipient of any funds from the Gates Foundation.

• Another jackpot: sustainability

Bain & Company has also partnered with the NGO Positive Planet, founded by Jacques Attali, the president of Bain’s French subsidiary sitting on its board together with two officials from the French government.[42] “Positive Planet, previously PlaNet Finance, is a group whose main aim is to develop sustainable and equitable economic, social, and environmental inclusion ev-erywhere in the world”.[43] Bain & Company is indeed very much present in what it considers to be the next revolution, that of sustainability: “Similar to the digital revolution before it, the sustainability revolution changes everything”. It is notably “shifting profit pools, challenging historically high returns in some areas while opening up billion-dollar opportunities in others.”[44]

In particular, according to Bain & Company, “[p]lant-based meat could be a $140 billion business by the end of this decade”[45], the aim being to provide substitutes with the same benefits as animal products but without their negative impacts on health and environment. Former associates of Bain

• Company have been hired by Impossible Foods,[46] a firm headquartered in California, founded in 2011 to bring this about. The current crisis has proved very profitable for the sale of its products, notably for its flagship Impossible Burger, launched in July 2016, which has been trying to capture the European market since last year.[47] In the U.S., last March, Impossible Burger was available in 150 stores; it can now be found in more than 8 000.[48] The motivations of Impossible Foods are enticing. However, its substitutes essentially contain soja. Now, 94 % of American soya and 82 % of world soya are GMOs, mainly produced by Monsanto (now Bayer) and modified to tolerate its herbicide, Roundup. Monsanto was a client of Bain & Company from 1973 to 1985. It owes its soaring success to Mitt Romney.[49] In 2010, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation bought 500 000 Monsanto shares.[50]

• From Bain & Company to Bain Capital

One cannot talk of Bain & Company without mentioning Bain Capital. Ac-cording to the latter’s former managing director, Geoff Rehnert, this investment firm was desired by Bill Bain and his partners in order to “do for the companies that they invested in or that they bought what they were doing for their clients [so] that they would be even more profitable than just doing it on a consulting basis”.[51] Bain Capital was thus founded in 1984 by some Bain & Company partners, notably Mitt Romney, helped by John W. Hanley, the CEO of Monsanto[52]; some of its other early investors have since run afoul of the law.[53]

Romney remained its CEO until 1999, except for his brief return to Bain & Company. Seemingly, he “helped turn $37 million and seven employees into 115 employees and $4 billion. For his efforts, he amassed a personal wealth of up to $250 million, depending on the estimate”[54]… but at the cost of how many human lives? Bain Capital is notably specialized in the takeover of businesses, which are then often forced into layoffs and debts, even into bankruptcy.[55] For instance, “Bain invested $5 million to purchase the company [Stage Stores] and took it public in the mid-’90s, reaping $100 million from stock offerings.

Stage filed for bankruptcy in 2000, and 5,795 workers reportedly were laid off.”[56] Massive layoffs did take place in a French factory, sold for a symbolic 1 Euro, by its owner Samsonite, whose main shareholder was Bain Capital.[57]

 Yet, in 2013, the British “government sold an 80% stake in blood products company Plasma Resources UK” to Bain Capital.[58] Prior to this, a medical testing company, Damon Corp., in which Bain Capital had had “control-ling interest” had been recognized to be “guilty of massive medicare fraud”. However, “[b]y the time, Damon Corp. pleaded guilty to defrauding the United States Government” it had long been sold by Bain.[59] It seemingly also “got away”[60] when another American diagnostics company, now involved in Covid-19 testing,[61] in which it also had “majority control” was alleged in 2012 to have violated “the False Claims Act”.[62]

The company was sold to Eurofins,[63] headquartered in Luxembourg in 2015, and only for the period 2015-2017 was there a ruling for allegations that it had “conspired with others to pay doctors kickbacks disguised as investment returns”, for which it agreed to pay compensation.[64] In France, Eurofins is one of the three monitoring laboratories for Covid-19 tests, alongside Cerba Healthcare.[65]

• Bain Capital and Covid-19

Bain Capital, through its various divisions, is present in all the sectors con-nected to Covid-19.[66] It has notably invested in Vention, which is “[h]elping manufacturers scale and retool production to increase the output of” products considered “essential” such as “masks, PPE and ventilators”’,[67] in Precinmac, “[m]anufacturing more than 800,000 critical components for ventilators”,[68] in Diversey, specialized in disinfectants, and owner of the patent for Accelerated Hydrogen Peroxide, a new disinfection technology for hands and surfaces,[69] and in Varsity Brands “producing thousands of masks globally”.[70] Bain Cap-ital has also recently invested in a biotech specialized in vaccines,[71] as well as in a health-data startup.[72]

Besides, in 2017, Bain Capital together with Microsoft Ventures partnered with In-Q-Tel, “the CIA’s venture arm”, to fund a Silicon Valley startup, which “has been working with” a US Defense unit.[73] Since this summer, Bain Capital has invested in Huddl.ai., a video-conference platform.[74] It also has investments in DocuSign, “The Global Standard for Digital Transaction Management”,[75] and Microsoft and Amazon are among its top holdings.[76]

• Separate or not?

What are the connections between Bain & Company and Bain Capital? It is hard to say. “Bain maintained that Bain Capital was not a sister company or a division but rather a completely separate company that simply shared a similar approach to producing results. The firm was, however, housed in the same building as Bain & Company and its employees shared the same cafeteria.”[77] Also, according to Renhert, “Bain Capital was conceived as a part of Bain & Company initially.”[78]

(Today, both are headquartered in Boston.) The website of Bain & Company states: “As a separate company, Bain Capital shares no management or information with Bain & Company. What we do share, however, is our approach to taking on tough business challenges and our commitment to delivering extraordinary results.”[79]

• Not all that free

 According to the New York Times,[80] in an article “ largely based on interviews with Bill Bain, who rarely speaks to the press, and with Bain employees, past and present, some of whom insisted on anonymity”, notably out of fear of reprisals, “Bain is famous for the iron discipline and gung-ho spirit of its troops (who are known throughout the industry as Bainies), and for its extraordinary secrecy. New employees must sign a nondisclosure form, promising never to reveal the names of clients, and everyone who works for the company must adhere to a ’code of confidentiality’ that includes instruction on how to discard sensitive documents.”

As regards its role in the public sphere, the way it recruits new clients is worth stating: “In its quest for clients, Bain & Company offers prospects ‘acquaintanceships’, under which the consultants work without charge for several weeks so that the two parties can look each other over.” Another tactic is that of “a camel’s-nose-in-the-tent”. Basically, “the firm will take on a small assignment when the project has the wholehearted backing of the chief executive and the effort can produce spectacular results. If the C.E.O. is impressed, he will be inclined to welcome Bain into the fold. In the process of getting acquainted, Bain teams ask a lot of questions”, and have access to much information.

Some British government officers, including a former Health Minister, have joined Bain & Company, after leaving their public office, in the latter case in a role notably covering “thought leadership focused on creating a ‘step change in healthcare delivery’, institutional reforms, technology transformation and behavioural change”.[81] Another case concerns the Senior Responsible Officer of a programme for which Bain had been “selected as strategic partner”.[82]

 In France, is Bain intervening “pro bono” , as claimed by the government? The StopCovid platform, launched in March 2020 at the request of its Ministry of Economy and Finance in order to “connect industrialists … and professional users of these products [associated to Covid-19]”,[83] was de-veloped by Mirakl, a French software company. Bain Capital has high stakes in this startup.[84] The sales of some of the disinfectants through this platform directly profit to the company holding the patent for Accelerated Hydrogen Peroxide, in which Bain Capital has also invested. Moreover, payments are made via Webhelp Payment Services.[85] The Webhelp Group was founded by former Bain & Company associates.[86][87]

10           Have populations been consulted?

 In short, have populations the world over, including democratic nations, put every aspect of their lives, especially their health and their future, into the hands of a handful of interconnected sprawling consulting or private equity firms – for Bain & Company and Bain Capital are certainly not alone –, engaged in bringing about it behavioural change,[88] notably through what appears to be an infantilization process which considers them helpless and in need of protection?[89]

Are they even aware of it given that major media groups are funded, invested in, or advised by such firms or their clients? While many, including Le Monde, Spiegel Online and The Guardian have received large grants from the Bill and Melinda Foundation,[90] others have been invested in by Bain Capital,[91] or have “worked with” Bain and Company.[92]

 This article is based on the French original by the author, “Coronavirus: Une agence américaine pilote la stratégie de la France!”, magazine Nexus (n^◦ 131, novembre-décembre 2020), www.nexus.fr

REFERENCES:

[1]https://www.cityam.com/uk-consultants-paid-100m-to-advise-government-on-coronavirus/

[2]https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/strategy-consultants-help-government-chart-covid-19-plans/articleshow/75457363.cms?from=mdr

[3]https://www.liberation.fr/checknews/2020/04/15/covid-19-est-il-vrai-que-la-france-est-incapable-de-compter-le-vrai-nombre-de-tests-pratiques-chaque_1785211

[4]https://www.marianne.net/politique/coronavirus-le-cabinet-prive-qui-pilote-la-strategie-de-depistage-de-la-france

[5]See note 2

[6]See note 1

[7]https://www.cdcfoundation.org/our-story

[8]https://socialimpactatbain.com/bridgespan-high-impact-philanthropy.html

[9]     https://www.wellsfargo.com/about/corporate/governance/craver/

[10]https://www.bostonfed.org/news-and-events/pressreleases/2002/boston-fed-announces-2002-board-of-directors.aspx

[11] https://www.bostonfed.org/news-and-events/pressreleases/2004/boston-fed-announces-2004-board-of-   directors.aspx

[12]https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/greed-and-debt-the-true-story-of-mitt-romney-and-bain-capital-183291/

[13]https://mg.co.za/article/2019-07-02-sars-and-treasury-to-pursue-criminal-charges-against-bain-co/

[14]Bain & Co. was the strategic consultant of the

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), a Canadian pension fund, for its investment in

Biogroup-LCD, the 3rd largest group of French medical analysis laboratories. https://capitalfinance.lesechos.fr/deals/capital-developpement/cdpq-investit-180-m-dans-les-laboratoires-danalyses-medicales-de-biogroup-lcd-129632

[15]The chief medical officer of Unilabs is a former Bain & Co. associate. https://unilabs.com/node/1325

[16]February 2020 : Bain \& Company announced it had invested in EcoVadis,

https://www.consultancy.eu/news/3896/bain-integrates-esg-and-purpose-in-services-with-ecovadis-deal.

Cerba is a client of this French firm founded in 2007,

https://www.csp-epl.com/sites/www.csp-epl.com/files/PHARMACEUTIQUES%20-%20N274%20-%200220%20-%2072-73-LOGISTIQUE%20DURABLE.pdf

[17]https://www.cerbaresearch.com/news/covid-19-samples-available-through-cerba-research-ivd-division/

[18]https://www.data.gouv.fr/en/datasets/donnees-relatives-aux-tests-de-depistage-de-covid-19-realises-en-laboratoire-de-ville/

[19]https://www.gouvernement.fr/sites/default/files/locale/piece-jointe/2019/10/11_against_information_manipulation.pdf

[20]https://www.crunchbase.com/person/matthewstasior

[21]https://www.bain.com/insights/the-future-ofhealthcare/

[22]https://www.bain.com/insights/why-telehealth-will-outlast-the-pandemic/

[23]https://www.bain.com/about/mediacenter/press-releases/2020/lausd-enlists-bain-toplan-recovery-pathway-following-covid/

[24]https://www.inthepublicinterest.org/management-consulting-firm-bain-company-to-help-los-angeles-school-district-with-online-learning/

[25]https://www.bain.com/fr/insights/nous-prenons-un-engagement-de-resultats-envers-les-generations-futures/

[26]https://www.bain.com/about/media-center/press-releases/2020/hadley-announced-as-new-mp-of-bainuk/

[27]http://www.fundinguniverse.com/companyhistories/bain-company-history/

[28]https://www.itsma.com/research/bainnet-marks-bains-push-into-the-e-services-fray-an-interview-with-steve-berez-vice-president-of-e-commerce-bain-company/

[29]https://www.bain.com/insights/the-essential-guide-to-post-covid-19-consumers-video/

[30]https://www.bain.com/insights/video-healthcare-andy-pasternak/

[31]https://www.vault.com/company-profiles/management-strategy/bain-company

[32]https://truists.org/chasing-the-deepest-state-whos-behind-gates

[33]https://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Press-Releases/2020/03/Life-Science-Companies-Commit-to-the-Fight-Against-COVID-19-Pandemic-alongside-Gates-Foundation

[34]https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/23/bill-gates-turns-10-billion-into-200-billion-worth-of-economic-benefit.html

[35]https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/24/bill-gates-humanity-will-see-its-last-case-of-polio-this-year.html

[36]https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-health-middle-east-africa-united-nations-619efb65b9eeec5650f011b960a152e9

[37]https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30111741/

[38]https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/covid-could-be-under-control-by-feb-panel/story-dXTj1CeDnHsKxcEAHTAbcO.html

[39]https://iith.ac.in/reshighlights/2019/12/12/Vaccine-On-Wheels/

[40]https://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database

[41]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7102597/pdf/main.pdf

[42]https://positiveplanet.ngo/gouvernance-2/

[43]https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_Planet

[44]https://www.bain.com/insights/sustainability-is-the-next-digital/

[45]Ibid.

[46]https://app.lead411.com/company_ImpossibleFoods_3024660.html

[47]https://www.lesechos.fr/industrie-services/conso-distribution/viande-vegetale-impossible-foods-passe-la-seconde-pour-conquerir-le-marche-europeen-1143296

[48]https://www.theshelbyreport.com/2020/08/17/impossible-foods-new-funding-investors/

[49]https://www.motherjones.com/food/2012/09/romney-monsanto-bain/

[50]https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2010/sep/29/gates-foundation-gm-monsanto

[51]https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/government-elections-politics/choice-2012/the-frontline-interview-geoff-rehnert/

[52]See note 49.

[53]https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-xpm-2012-jul-19-la-na-bain-creation-20120719-story.html

[54]https://www.americaninno.com/boston/romneys-startup-success-a-history-of-bain-capital/

[55]See note 12.

[56]https://greatgameindia.com/will-mitt-romneys-bain-capital-bankrupt-indian-workers-as-well/

[57]https://la-bas.org/la-bas-magazine/reportages/ON-N-EST-PAS-QUE-DES-VALISES-Les-ouvrieres-virees-de-Samsonite-montent-sur-les-planches-au-festival-d-Avignon

[58]https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23372989

[59]https://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/01/21/romney-supervised-medical-testing-company-guilty-of-massive-medicare-fraud/#479134311aae

[60]https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/bain-capital-got-away

[61]https://bostonheartdiagnostics.com/news/covid-19-antibody-testing-at-boston-heart-diagnostics/

[62]https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/4534566/riedel-v-boston-heart-diagnostics-corporation/

[63]https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medical-devices/eurofins-scientific-snaps-up-boston-heart-diagnostics-for-140m

[64]https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/laboratory-pay-2667-million-settle-false-claims-act-allegations-illegal-inducements-referring

[65]See note 18.

[66]https://www.baincapital.com/covidresponse/

[67]https://www.baincapital.com/covidresponse/vention

[68]https://www.baincapital.com/covidresponse/precinmac

[69]https://www.baincapital.com/covidresponse/diversey

[70]https://www.baincapital.com/covidresponse/varsity

[71]https://news.crunchbase.com/news/affinivax-closes-on-120m-series-b-as-biotech-takes-center-stage-globally/?

[72]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-05/health-data-startup-verana-raises-100-million-from-gv-bain

[73]https://defensesystems.com/articles/2017/05/18/cia.aspx

[74]https://www.prnewswire.com/newsreleases/huddlailaunches-ai-video-meetings-slack-meets-zoommeets-google-drive-301097913.html

[75]https://www.baincapitalventures.com/portfolio/docusign/

[76]https://fintel.io/i/bain-capital-public-equitymanagement-ii

[77]http://www.fundinguniverse.com/companyhistories/bain-company-history/

[78]https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/oral-history/choice-2012/bain/

[79]https://www.bain.com/about/global-affiliations/

[80]https://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/24/magazine/counselor-to-the-king.html

[81]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/892123/Letter_Bain_and_co_-_LOS.pdf

[82]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/677175/Scan_Nicola_Richardson_20180126-134200_3177_001__1_.pdf

[83]https://stopcovid19.fr/a-propos

[84]https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/inno/stories/fundings/2019/02/28/bain-capital-invests-70m-in-e-commerce-tech.html

[85]https://stopcovid19.fr/faq

[86]https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Jousset

[87]https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivier_Duha

[88]See note 81.

[89]https://www.bain.com/insights/the-essential-guide-to-post-covid-19-consumers-video/

[90]See note 40.

[91]https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/17/business/worldbusiness/17iht-media.3578586.html

[92]https://www.bain.com/industry-expertise/media-and-entertainment/

About the author: Dr Urmie Ray read mathematics at the University of Cambridge, where she obtained her B.A. (M.A.), Mmath, and PhD. After 23 years as an academic, several articles and a book in the field of algebra, she resigned her professorship in France – the country of her childhood – to dedicate herself to her lifelong interests in current issues, notably those related to science. Her second non-mathematical book “On Science: Concepts, Cultures, and Limits” (Routledge, Dec. 2020) in particular examines why and how science has been increasingly transformed into its exact opposite, a dogma which claims to speak in its name.

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