One of the most vexing questions facing today's public servants is when to cash in on time served.
In many cases, you only get one chance: After jumping from government to the private sector, there's no turning back to Uncle Sam.
Typically.
Antony Blinken and Jake Sullivan have defied the norms. Having served in the Obama administration, where they helped America lead from behind, both men seamlessly transitioned to what Calvin Coolidge once called "the chief business of America": business.
Blinken, a former deputy secretary of state and top foreign policy adviser to then-vice president Joe Biden, founded the strategic consultancy WestExec, finding a way to retail his intimate knowledge of the federal bureaucracy to a list of clients that remains under lock and key.
Sullivan landed at Macro Advisory Partners, helping clients, including the ride-sharing giant Uber, manage geopolitical risk—or, in Uber's case, strong-arming unions and working to water down a bill that would have required Uber to increase benefits for its employees. Like WestExec, its clients remain a secret.
Now, the lead-from-behind coalition is heading back to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue—or, in Blinken's case, to Foggy Bottom. All without disclosing the corporate ties that might have sunk lesser men.
For finally fixing that revolving door, and for demonstrating that cis white men can still rise to the heights of power, we congratulate these Washington Free Beacon Men of the Year.