Katherine Durant Bio, Wiki
Katherine Durant is the founder and managing partner of Atlas Investments LLC/RTG, a holding company with a portfolio of shopping centers throughout Oregon. She is also renown for being the wife to Gordon Sondland, the United States Ambassador to the European Union who is also the founder and former chairman of Provenance Hotels and co-founder of the merchant bank Aspen Capital.
Until 2016, Durant was the Chairperson of the Oregon Investment Council, the body that oversees the over $85 billion Public Employees Retirement System Fund.
Sondland is a self-made, free-market advocating hotelier whose family escaped Nazi Germany. He’s found himself plunged into controversy as a result of the president’s phone call to the Ukrainian president.
Katherine Durant Education
According to her Linkedln, Durant went to Pepperdine University for a Bachelor of Science – degree in Business Administration and Management. She later joined Willamette University for her Masters in Business Administration where she specialized in the field Of Finance.
Katherine Durant & Gordon Sondland Foundation
Sondland is married to Katherine Durant. The two celebrated their wedding at Oregon Golf Club in September 1993 a year after their engagement in Seattle, Washington.
Speaking to Oregon Business about how he met his future wife, Sondland says, “I flew to Portland to look at a building Katy was marketing. My friend and mentor Howard S.Wright counseled me against the investment but advised me to ‘keep in touch with that broker; she is really pretty and smart.”
He and his wife run the Sondland Durant Foundation. Its website says “The Gordon D. Sondland and Katherine J. Durant Foundation was founded in 1999 by Gordon Sondland & Katherine Durant. The organizations supported by the Foundation include the Portland Art Museum, OMSI, OHSU, New Avenues for Youth, Oregon Ballet Theatre, the Portland Parks Foundation.”
The foundation’s mission is described as “Helping Families & Boosting Communities.” Sondland’s wife, who is also called Katy. A video biography introducing Sondland by the U.S. Mission to the EU shows the new ambassador sitting in his home with his wife, making coffee, and sitting next to his dog. He said he had been married for 25 years to Katy Durant and introduced his two children.
Sondland’s website lists him as serving on the following boards: Sanford School Board of Visitors at Duke University; Oregon Health & Science University Foundation; U.S. Bancorp Washington State Advisory Board; National Finance Co-Chairman; George W. Bush Center.
Katherine Durant & Gordon Sondland Children
The two have two children, Max and Lucy Sondland who are also listed on the foundation’s website. They are both college students. Willamette Week reports that Max attends Duke University; his parents gave the college $2.5 million.
Katherine Durant Political Affiliation
According to Willamette Week, Katherine “is a real estate investor and a registered Democrat. They live in a $2.5 million West Hills home, where the couple has regularly hosted political fundraisers.” She served under three Democratic governors on the Oregon Investment Council.
Sondland and his wife have had issues with Trump. According to Oregon Live, after initially supporting Trump during his run for president once Trump was the Republican nominee, they broke with him when he criticized Gold Star Father Khizr Khan. “Trump’s constantly evolving positions diverge from their personal beliefs and values on so many levels,” their spokesperson said, according to Oregon Live.
Gordon Sondland Trump–Ukraine scandal
During former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor’s public hearing before the House Intelligence Committee in the first week of the impeachment probe hearings, he testified that Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, made it clear that newly elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would not receive U.S. military aid or a visit to meet President Donald Trump at the White House unless he publicly announced that he was investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
On October 8th, 2019, Sondland caused controversy when he notified lawmakers that he wasn’t going to show for a scheduled closed-door meeting with the House. His attorney said that he wanted to appear but was told not to by the State Department. Sondland attorney, Robert Luskin, told CBS News, “Sondland believes strongly that he acted at all times in the best interests of the United States, and he stands ready to answer the Committee’s questions fully and truthfully.”
Trump tweeted: “I would love to send Ambassador Sondland, a really good man and great American, to testify, but unfortunately he would be testifying before a totally compromised kangaroo court, where Republican’s rights have been taken away, and true facts are not allowed out for the public….”
Gordon Sondland Net Worth
According to Mother Jones, Sondland’s net worth is about $60 million, and he’s owned a Lear jet.
