MICHAEL AINSLIE
1965-66 Corning Fellow
Cartels and Zibatsu
Major: Economics
Michael is a businessman, preservationist, philanthropist, educational mentor, and change agent. His prolific career includes highlights such as serving as the president and CEO of Sotheby’s and president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, as well as president, CEO, and board member across other companies and institutions. He was pivotal in starting the Posse Foundation at Vanderbilt, served as the first board chair, and continues to serve as a board member. In 2020, he released a memoir, A Nose for Trouble, detailing his life spent embracing the adventures and misadventures of business and life.
At Vanderbilt, Michael was Student Body President and involved across campus in various capacities. Upon returning from his fellowship, Michael ate lots of hamburgers, gained weight (after having lost 20 pounds during his year of travel!), and entered Harvard Business School 45 days after getting back to the U.S.
“It made me a global citizen. I think and act from a global perspective. I was able to run a global company, Sotheby's, active in 85 cities in 40 countries. I was prepared to deal with cultural and personal differences as a result of my Fellowship experiences. ”
— Michael Ainslie
ITINERARY
England
France
Germany
Denmark
Sweden
Finland
Russia
Czechoslovakia
Poland
Switzerland
Greece
Italy
Jordan
Egypt
Syria
Israel
Kenya
Tanzania
India
Nepal
Burma
Cambodia
Thailand
Vietnam
Laos
Hong Kong
Japan
TRAVEL STORIES
In Vietnam, I was out of money and took a job as an economist with the construction company doing all the work for the US military. Their 50,000 employees went on strike and one other fellow and I became the negotiating team to settle this big strike. Then, they gave me a pilot and Beechcraft Baron to fly to the 20 job sites north of Saigon to explain the settlement. Incredible experience.
In India, I studied the PL 480 Wheat subsidy program under which the USA was distributing free wheat. Due to political shifts here, it was ending and we made the Indian govt. build a fertilizer plant which they joint ventured with AMOCO. It became a huge problem for the Congress party and I ended up meeting with I K Gudjural, the Congress party leader in parliament to hear his story on how the USA had cost his government the election. Fascinating
In Kenya, Oginga Odinga, or Double O, as he was known, led a coup to overthrow Kenyata. It failed, but rather than kill or imprison OO who was a Luau, Kenyata, who was a Kikuyu, reorganized the government and made him the minister of a region way out in Western Kenya, avoiding a tribal bloodbath. Victory through reorganization, rather than revolution. Never forgot it.