Inside The $10 Million Fortune Of Antony Blinken, Biden’s Secretary Of State

Between roles in the Obama and Biden administrations, Antony Blinken cofounded a D.C. advisory business—and made a small fortune.

Earlier this year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered the commencement address at his alma mater, Columbia Law School, an occasion that put him in a reflective mood. Blinken explained how he had taken a well-paying job in a big firm after getting his degree but quickly abandoned it and eventually landed in a not-so-lucrative post in the State Department. “We spend a huge portion of our lives at work,” he told the graduates, setting himself up to deliver a classic commencement message. “If at all possible, you need to love what you do.”

What Blinken did not tell the graduates: He ended up making plenty of money anyway. For close to 25 years, he worked in government jobs, rising to become deputy secretary of state in the Obama Administration. When Blinken finally left that role in 2017, proximity to power led to a host of opportunities in the private sector. In part thanks to those opportunities—in media, finance and corporate strategy—the secretary of state is now worth an estimated $10 million.

In September 2017, Blinken cofounded a firm named WestExec Advisors, which boasts on its website that it “brings the Situation Room to the boardroom.” In practice, that means helping clients such as Uber, FedEx and Blackstone by, for example, leveraging connections or advising on strategy. The business appears to have grown quickly. From February 2018 to October 2020, the number of team members listed on the WestExec website expanded from 19 to 38.

Many of them had resumes similar to Blinken’s, loaded with government experience. No surprise, then, that several joined him in the Biden Administration. At least eight former WestExec colleagues now serve in executive branch roles. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines used to work for WestExec. Same with Press Secretary Jen Psaki. So, too, did the deputy director of the CIA, David Cohen, and deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco.

Blinken Vs. Trump’s diplomats

Trump first picked former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson to be his secretary of state and then, after the two businessmen butted heads, replaced him with far-poorer Mike Pompeo.

Blinken left the firm with a big payday. His financial disclosure report, which lists income from 2019 and 2020, detailed guaranteed payments and distributions of $1.2 million from WestExec. In addition, Blinken noted at least $1.5 million of equity investments tied to the firm. He sold back his share of the business to partners in March.

WestExec wasn’t the only thing keeping Blinken busy the last four years. In June 2017, he started advising a Silicon Valley investment outfit named Social Capital, helmed by a self-promoting, controversial financier named Chamath Palihapitiya, who is worth an estimated $1.3 billion. Blinken’s role ultimately gave him an interest in a Social Capital partnership, worth more than $250,000, that offered exposure to companies like Box, Slack, SurveyMonkey and Virgin Galactic.

Blinken also did some work overseas, advising an infrastructure investment fund in Paris, where he lived during grade school and high school. From January 2019 to August 2020, he earned $134,000 from that group. Closer to home, he joined Joe Biden at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy & Global Engagement. Blinken worked there from May 2017 to June 2019. In the first six months of 2019, he earned $80,000 for his efforts. Eventually, he helped Biden on the campaign trail as well, making another $144,000.

Inside Antony Blinken’s Fortune

Blinken and his wife, Evan Ryan, have a couple of nice pensions from their years in government. But their real money comes from time in the private sector, where he founded his own advisory firm and she worked for Axios Media.

There were also media opportunities. Blinken started serving as a global affairs analyst at CNN in February 2017. It’s not clear how much the gig provided him in 2017 and 2018, but he earned $22,000 for about six months of work in 2019.

His wife, Evan Ryan—also a longtime government official, who joined the Biden Administration this year as a deputy assistant to the president—made some money in media as well. In 2017 Ryan started working at Axios Media, where she served as executive vice president. Her financial disclosure details a $125,000 salary, $369,000 of income from exercising Axios options and an interest in the media company worth more than $500,000. Biden’s transition team paid Ryan an additional $96,000.

All this money helped the couple to live quite well. In 2018, they bought a home in the D.C. suburbs for $4.3 million, taking out a $1.1 million loan in the process. In addition, they accumulated stock in a handful of companies, including Google parent Alphabet (a $195,000 stake), Berkshire Hathaway ($139,000), Apple ($120,000) and Facebook ($80,000).

Back in government, Blinken and Ryan may see their earning power diminish. But they’ll at least get to build on one of the sweetest benefits in Washington—a federal pension that will pay them in old age. Blinken’s is currently worth an estimated $500,000 or so, and Ryan’s appears to be worth more than $150,000. Since their eventual payouts depend, in part, on the number of years they serve, those pensions should only get more valuable the longer they stay in the administration.