Page 262 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

FELLOWS AT WORK

Security Council staff, serving as director for international trade. His prin-
cipal was National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, who went on to
become Secretary of State in 2005. During Sullivan’s Fellowship year, he
traveled the world with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, a won-
derful mentor who never missed an opportunity to pass on a valuable lead-
ership lesson. He also participated in meetings with President Bush, twice
briefing the president on economic trade policy. He was asked to stay on
in his position at the end of his Fellowship year. He did so for another two
years until he was recalled to active duty by the Marines and sent to Iraq
to work on the staff of General John Abizaid, Commander of the U.S.
Central Command. Shortly after returning from his tour of duty in 2006,
Sullivan was nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate for
his new position as assistant secretary of state for economic, energy, and
business affairs.
“The White House Fellowship is clearly the best fellowship in America,
and it’s probably the best fellowship in the world,” Sullivan said.

DINNER WITH A KING ON AIR FORCE ONE
Another Fellow whose travels led him to a one-of-a-kind experience is
Frederick Benson (WHF 73–74). Benson, while assigned by White House
Chief of Staff Alexander Haig to monitor energy policy activities during
the waning months of the Nixon administration, was sent to hand-deliver
important documents to the president in Key Biscayne, Florida. Benson
ended up flying back to Washington on Air Force One with the president
and his entourage, which included Nixon’s Irish setter, King Timahoe. The
president was in his private quarters, and the rest of the staff had gone back
to the press section of the plane, leaving the dog and Benson, who was sit-
ting in a front-row seat with a table over his lap, eating a steak dinner.
“I was feeding every other bite of my steak to King Timahoe, and we
were having a good time when I felt someone’s presence, and here was Pres-
ident Nixon standing over me with his arms folded, tapping his foot and
smiling. And I couldn’t stand up! I’m a military guy and I’ve got this table
I couldn’t get out from underneath, and I didn’t know what to do—I was
just sitting there. And he said to me, ‘Are you enjoying your steak?’ and
the first thing I could think of to say was, ‘Not half as much as your dog
is,’ and he just looked at me and rocked back and forth on his feet and
turned around and went back in his private quarters without another word,

247