After Scandal, Petraeus Stays Under Radar, but Not Out of the Spotlight
So the first time he met there with President Nursultan Nazarbayev, he made a joke to dispel fears that the United States had designs on the region’s oil.
“We could have bought all the oil in the region for 100 years for what we’ve spent in Iraq!” the general said.
.. Today, General Petraeus is Citizen Petraeus, a new partner in KKR & Company, a New York private equity firm. Last month he was back in Kazakhstan, this time courting the business elite at Nazarbayev University, founded by the Kazakh leader.
.. he told CBS’s Bob Schieffer that his KKR job was “like being director of the C.I.A. for a global financial firm, with a lot smaller staff.”
.. But private equity experts said his real value was his Rolodex.
.. Since then, Mr. Petraeus has sought to carve out a new voice for himself as an expert on North America and energy, which has formed the backbone of his work at KKR, in academia and as a paid public speaker.
.. C.U.N.Y. students know “Professor Petraeus” as a tough editor. He requires papers to be written in the style of memos to a White House chief of staff, conducts mock congressional hearings on issues and hands out copies of “The Elements of Style,” by Strunk and White, on the first day of class.