This document is a transcript of a session at the 2014 Koch donor summit called “Leveraging Science and the Universities,” which is from an audio obtained by Lauren Windsor of the Undercurrent. The transcript was produced by Alderson Reporting Company. A video report by Windsor, sponsored by American Family Voices, is embedded above.

These summits, organized by Charles Koch’s network, advise his fellow billionaire funders about his priorities. At the time, these donor strategy meetings were held under the aegis of Koch’s Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce.  

Subsequently, Koch organized the donor meetings under the name the “Seminar Network,” and as of 2018, these billionaire conclaves are occurring under the name “Stand Together.” Whatever the name, the concept is the same: this is the political agenda of the Koch empire in coordination with the CEOs and corporations that help fund Charles Koch’s agenda through a non-profit trade group–organized under 501(c)(5) of the IRS Code–which has operated under different brand names over time.

This kind of session is one of the organizing tools deployed by Koch to get his billionaire and millionaire funder allies, who are part of what is also sometimes called the “Koch Network,” on the same page about the electoral/policy agenda for the year ahead. Charles Koch has been hosting these semi-annual meetings for years to advance his personal and corporate agenda.

For more information about the ways that Charles Koch has sought to alter what universities teach and who they hire through his industrial fortune, see UnKoch My Campus, which has extensive materials about this problem and ways to address it, here.

For related material on the 2014 Koch donor meetings, please see the following documents:

1. “2014 Koch Donor Summit”
2. “2014 Koch Donor Conference Meetings.”

For media coverage of these documents, see the following articles:

1. “Exclusive: Inside the Koch Brothers’ Secret Billionaire Summit,” by Lauren Windsor at the Nation.
2. “The Koch Brothers Left a Confidential Document at Their Donor Conference,” by Daniel Schuman and Andy Kroll in Mother Jones.