On this episode, Bob Kraft provided his thoughts on his past role with IIUSA, his current involvement as President Emeritus, and his new role in the Political Action Committee.
On this episode, Bob Kraft provided his thoughts on his past role with IIUSA, his current involvement as President Emeritus, and his new role in the Political Action Committee.
On today's episode of investing the American Dream podcast, we have featured guest, Bob Kraft, former IU se President speaking on his tenure with Ira USA, and his current ventures with the political action committee called the pack. Let's get into it. So Bob, thank you for being here today with Peter and I, we really appreciate you taking the time to do this podcast with us. So I know we have a variety of topics we wanted to touch on today. But I think I'm going to lead with your tenure at AI USA. So I know it's no secret that you have had a tremendous and productive tenure during your time as AI USA President. But can you tell us how you feel about your leadership? And how that influenced the direction of IR USA as an organization? And what would you say were some of the key initiatives and accomplishments during that time? Yeah, that's a lot. Dress I, you know, probably in terms of my impact on the industry, I really need to give a lot of credit to the Board of Directors, I inherited a really strong board. And then over the six years that I was president, some new members came on, but we had stability, and we had a really, really quality committed group to the industry. My job as President was to pretty much try and orchestrate coordinate, build consensus within the board. And that means listening a lot. We had some really good strong voices on the board. And you know, as a result of a lot, we spent a lot of time and dialogue, making sure that the decisions that were made by the board of directors would positively impact the industry long term. So I was blessed to really have a quality group of board members in terms of maybe some of the things we did that were significant, I take great pride, the changes that were made by the Board of Directors, beginning with the executive director, Aaron Grau was new a year into my tenure there. And we also made a change with our lobbying group out of Washington, DC, we had been doing the same thing for years, spending a lot of money on our efforts with a particular firm, and we just weren't seeing the benefits of the money spent. So we made a change there brought in a new PR group who really did a terrific job through all this. So those were probably the two most significant things along with maybe the third thing was stabilizing the staff. And I USA, and I must say that the again, the Board of Directors, the officer group was pretty much intact the whole six years and outstanding individuals. So you know, it was it was fun. We had a lot of tough challenges, with the legislation, the up and down, up and down back and forth. Expiration in the program, but we kind of just hung in there and looked at the long term potential, the industry and the good that the industry does, really for the world. Yeah. So Bob, since retiring from your role, as I USA President, I know that you've mentioned you've had some other initiatives that you're a part of, such as an including to your role as president emeritus Avaya, USA, could you please explain what this role entails and how it continues to connect you with the organization, as well as how has your transition to President Emeritus allowed you to contribute to Ira USA and the EB five industry in a different capacity? Yeah, I think one of the things the Association did when it established his bylaws back at his foundation, little over 16 years ago was establish, provision that if you served as president of the association, you would then be given emeritus status, which meant that you just stay active with the board. I do not have a vote on the board. But I participate in all the board meetings. And I'm there for the current president to seek counsel or if he wants to bounce ideas off me which I did my predecessor David Anderson, and Steven Lael, Lael, Yale lor. Were the prior presidents before me and I would talk to them on occasion, get their insight because they'd sat in the chair so it's a little different role. Unless you serve in it, trying to coordinate all the different factions within the industry, you know, it takes a lot of dialogue, thought, good conversation and most importantly, experience that others have had before you. So I hope to be able to provide that to our new president and also to the board of directors. And it keeps me active in the association, which I am going to be very active going forward. Well, good. So, you know, kind of talking about committees, I heard a rumor, that you're also part of something like a secret society, that I USA has a political action committee called PAC. I know, we can only talk high level on this. But could you elaborate on what the PAC does, and its significance for the EB five industry? Yeah, I kind of like that secret. I hadn't thought of those terms. And, and, but but that's kind of interesting, maybe that'll make it even more people join because they want, you know, special handshake, the whole thing. But in all seriousness, the political action committee was formed by the board authorized by the board of directors and an established in order to consolidate funds from people who are interested in the industry, and then be be able to earmark those funds or gift them in support of candidates that are in concert with our vision for the industry. And it gives I USA, much more clout or leverage within Washington in the past, prior to the PAC, all of us would make contributions individually. So I would make a contribution to a congressman or a senator was from Bob Kraft. And then we, you know, say on active and president of Iowa, USA, but it didn't within the offices of those candidates are those representatives and have the same impact. As you know, you got the I USA PAC contributing, right, we can contribute more money. So the PAC is fairly common. All industries have them. And it's just part of the system of fundraising. You know, it's a legal nonprofit entity. It allows individuals who would like to support IU essays, vision and initiatives with the government to contribute financially. We can't aggressively or openly solicit contributions, but we can ask people to sign a willing to be solicited and talk to document a very simple form. That gives us the ability to explain exactly what the political action committee is going to do with funds that are donated, we had a goal to raise a certain amount of money by the spring, actually, by the end of the year, and we surpass it in the spring. And we've doubled that goal. So it's off to a good start, I feel really good about it. It makes us more of a player in DC, which is important. It's all about visibility. Having the politicians know, I USA spreading the word because even though within our industry, I USA is the preeminent voice and well respected and the educational provider and the lobbying group within the halls of Congress. Yeah, you know, we're not a big organization. We're not like the American Chamber of Commerce or, you know, some of the other industry trade groups. So it's important to elevate our visibility in Washington, DC. And that's what this really allows us to do. So I agreed to serve as chairman, pack and I'm in that role, we have a board of directors for the PAC and we have a third party administrator out of Florida, that's all they really do is manage funds for PACs. To make sure you're legally compliant. You know, everything's tight. The the financial reporting goes back to the board of directors of AI USA, to make sure that money is spent properly. And we have actual board authorization when the PAC board Yeah, if we're going to make a contribution to a candidate, it's discussed openly and then voted on. So there's a real good governance set up within the pack to protect the investors money, and of course, to be aligned with us as objectives to you know, move the legislation into a permanent state. And when it expires in 2026 in there, there are a number of other things initially clubs that the association would like to see happen. So Bob, with that in mind, can you share any successful instances where the PACs advocacy efforts made a positive impact on the EB five program? And do you see the EB five program evolving in the future with the PAC contributing to its evolution? Well, I, you know, the PAC was established in January of this year. So, you know, just getting started. I will say, though, that we've made a number of contributions already to various offices, congressmen and senators, and had meetings with those officers as a result of it. With those offices. We also had a meeting, which we've never had before with the White House, oh, wow, just within the last month. And I am pretty sure it had a lot to do with the fact that we have formed this pack. And that, you know, we're gaining more visibility within Washington. And of course, immigration is a really hot issue. In my mind, investment, immigration, it should not be controversial. I mean, the people that come to the United States from overseas, they invest a significant amount of money, they create 10 American jobs. They're vetted like no other category. And, you know, it's a really good thing for communities around the country. And I think, through Iowa, USA efforts, since its inception, and especially the last eight years, there's more of a recognition of the impact, economic impact social impact that EB five has had on the country, we've done a really good job outreach with the National Governors Association, the mayor's Association, nationally, we've been very aggressive, just reaching out to other constituencies that we hadn't before. And that's part of the new lobbying effort with a group out of Washington that we hired who's done a really, really good job on that. And we just started thinking differently about it six, six years or so ago, as to how to have more of an impact, have more lines in the water, if you will, and raise our visibility in the packs part of that strategy just to, you know, keep aggressively pushing forward the message American jobs, economic development, people are very successful, they invest in other things, when they come here, education, they buy homes, cars, etc, etc. Plus, they're very, very well vetted better than category. So why not expand the programming more visas available, get behind that, and perhaps take some of the integrity measures that we introduced in the new legislation and the IRS a year and a half ago into other immigration categories. Because it really, it's a, it's a, it's a really well written law. It's something that forced all of us to get maybe a little better. In some cases, now, we felt first pathway partners, we were already doing all those things. So but it's something that everybody should be doing. And it's going to eliminate a lot of heartburn for investors, the bad press that we've had, because there's some people that were either bad actors, or they really didn't know how complex the program was, I think there was some of that where people got into it, because they thought it was an easy way to run raise money. Money wasn't available for all their sources. And Jesus EB five program looks interesting, they jump in, but they really didn't know what they're jumping into. And then as a result, major problems so this is made it much more difficult to get into the business, which is really a good thing. And we've seen a number of regional centers exit, the industry would call them marginal, very marginal, and, you know, if not non existent players, but they kind of muddied the water a little bit didn't reduce the number drastically, drastically. And that's, that's actually a good thing. So, you know, the people that thought it was easy, and they just get into it and kind of throw their line in the water. wreck and they didn't know what they're doing. Recognize that, you know, maybe this is more complicated. And it is it is, and it's critically important that the investors be protected and that the people operating in the industry are fully in compliant with US law. And and kind of understand the damage that's done if you really don't know what you're doing. I mean, it's not for it's not amateur hour. Yeah, and I think that goes back to not only the integrity of the program, but I guess kind of going back to like FPP and the track record. You know, I wanted to kind of shift focus to FPPS involvement with the industry. And obviously FPP has 100% success rate in securing permanent green cards for investors. You know, I'd love your thoughts like what does this take? What does it take to get a successful track record like this helping investors immigrate to the United States? And I know, Manuel, who just spoke on this last week, he talked about investing and doing project due diligence. So how do you feel that all ties in? Well, from from the very beginning, I think a big advantage we might have had was the background of the management group. In my case, I'm not an attorney. I wasn't a developer. You know, I was from corporate business world, I worked for publicly traded corporations. At senior level I've been on the board of international accompanies. And so fairly solid experience. And in like all business people, if you have any kind of longevity in business, you see the good, the bad, the ugly, and everybody makes mistakes, you learn from those mistakes, but that experience really benefits you going forward. So when I started looking at the business, I thought there was an opportunity there, if quality corporate governance standards were brought to the industry, we made sure that we were partnered with really good developers and attorneys, and construction companies, etc, etc. So I spent probably two and a half years doing nothing but researching the industry looking at it, you know, and then we made sure that we had the best attorneys in the country that were knowledgeable about EB five. So the attorneys we chose were two attorneys that were actually involved in the original law that which was written in 1990. And had been with the program since that time, so they knew it inside. Now, they are recognized as world renowned experts, and EB five, and they did a very good job of guiding us, you know, with all the offering documents and making sure we understood the program its complexities, and put together solid, legal documents to protect the investor, then the due diligence, part of it was critical for the projects themselves. So we looked at projects that had failed, we looked at projects that were conservative, that weren't over leveraged that were obviously qualified from a TA standpoint and met all the government standards, but we went through a lot of different projects, you know, to find the right ones, and, and we had, we had good success, we've had good success. So I feel real proud about that. But I mean, it's like, like anything, fundamentals, making sure you're checking all the boxes, blocking and tackling, just doing the basic things, the hard work, and it takes time, you have to be patient. And there are a lot of projects that look really interesting. But then if you kind of dug into them, you you peel back the layers a little bit and find out that maybe the people behind the project and had other issues in the past. And so part of it is finding people that have performed over the over the years. Yeah, and you know, track record says everything. So in our case, we were really focused on making sure that investor got what they wanted. And that, you know, we established the track record, done. So there's an old saying, Go slow to go fast. And so it means just do it right, be patient, and then over time, your success will accelerate. But if you don't take your time and get right in the very beginning, you're gonna crash and burn. So I've always believed in that and we've never overcommitted on projects taken on too big a project. And, you know, it's worked out for us. So now that we've talked a little bit about what brings a successful project together, I think it's time to shift focus to our most recent investment opportunity, Tallis, which is located on the best remaining parcel of land in the Coachella Valley, and includes the silver rock Golf Resort montage and Pendry amenities. And it is also currently under construction. Could you explain how Tallis features some incredible EB five benefits for foreign investors currently comparing different EB five projects? Yeah, it's a it's a really, really awesome project. I mean, it touches all the bases it's in a single census tract. It Ta. So they're set aside for that. The developer Robert Green is very successful is in California, which is a state that's highly desirable and highly known with foreign investors. It is a project that fits beautifully in the Coachella Valley in that Palm Springs look into area, there hasn't been new hotel construction for decades there. And that is a huge tourist destination. And I've been going out there over the years. And I've always enjoyed it. But I was always surprised that there weren't newer, higher quality hotel accommodations there. So in the Robert Greene company saw that they grabbed the land, purchased the land long time ago, and this thing's been in the works for a long time. And it is just a spectacular venue. It's in a great location in the job creation on it is already completed the job of the investor and all was well that's good for the investor. So the investors are going to have their job creation, and they're already done. Yeah, well, and you have two high quality hotels that have never been together before the montage in the plenary is, as you mentioned, Peter, I mean, it's just, it's just unbelievable. And then the condominiums that are available there, and they're selling those out already. So you're very excited about it. And to me, it's it's the best project that's on the market right now. Yeah. And I would encourage all those who would like to see some of the project site flyovers to go check out our YouTube or our social media pages, that first pathway. And you can see more of the ongoing construction there. So Bob, you know, as always, Peter, and I really appreciate having you here on the show with us. And we appreciate you sharing the new ventures you're working on. And thanks for letting the cat out of the bag on the pack. Do you have? Do you have any closing thoughts for our listeners or anything additional you'd like to share? Yeah, I just like to thank everybody that has supported us in the past. And it's, it's been a lot of fun. For me, the I always enjoyed international business. That was one of the things I was able to do in my corporate life prior to getting an EB five going on 17 years now. But so we have the international aspect of it, obviously, because people are coming from overseas and in learning about the different cultures and different countries and the issues that they may be dealing with and their dreams and what they see as an opportunity in America, in bringing that all together. And helping them reach their, their their dreams, reach their goals, is just the most satisfying thing I've done in my long business career. So and then the quality of the economic development we've had in many, many different cities and around the country. Plus all the people in the industry, they're very bright. They're very interesting. They're very they're just fascinating people because they share the same love for the overseas investors and in a very, very smart. And so it's been a privilege to define this industry is kind of the last hurrah in my career. I'm at the end of the that PP and I've got years to go yet, but it's been the best part of my business life. So I appreciate the opportunity to talk about what's going on in my change your ship and the secret society. Yes. Well, thanks again, Bob. I appreciate you joining us today. And again, if anyone has any additional questions, they can reach out to us directly at WWW dot first pathway.com Thanks, Bob. Thanks, Peter. If you would like to learn more about immigration through investment and how first pathway partners can assist you in achieving the American Dream by successfully navigating the EB five visa process, then please contact them directly online at www dot first pathway.com