From 2007 to 2009, David Perdue worked for an Indian conglomerate to help build up a textile retail business in India and China.
While Perdue was considering a run for U.S. Senate last year, he removed the experience with Gujarat Heavy Chemicals from his online bio at his consulting firm. Now it has become the latest flashpoint in the Republican’s race against Democrat Michelle Nunn, who is seeking to use Perdue’s business past against him.
First reported Monday by The Hill newspaper in Washington, Perdue's work with Gujarat Heavy Chemicals came after he retired as CEO of Dollar General – the chief bullet point in his biography as a Fortune 500 executive for some of the country's most recognizable brands.
Perdue took a part-time job at GHCL, splitting his time between the U.S. and India, as an independent consultant to help them start American-style retail stores under the brand name Rosebys India, according to the Perdue campaign. The stores all closed a couple of years after Perdue left; the company blamed the global recession.
It was a tumultuous time for GHCL. India's Security and Exchange Board barred its top executives — Perdue was not among them — from trading in the securities market amid allegations of falsifying their holding data to the public. GHCL faced protests for its environmental practices.
Perdue spokeswoman Megan Whittemore said Perdue’s positions on corporate boards gradually took up more of his time and led to his departure. He started the consulting firm Perdue Partners with his cousin, former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, in 2011.
Asked why his Perdue Partners bio was altered, Whittemore said: “As a Georgia small business owner, David’s biography was streamlined to focus on the major milestones in his 40-year business career creating jobs and revitalizing American companies.”
Nunn recently seized upon a 2005 deposition by Perdue in which he said "most of my career" was devoted to outsourcing, typically building up companies' overseas production. The bankruptcy case involved Pillowtex, a North Carolina textile maker that Perdue ran for eight months.
Nunn, who was CEO of volunteer service nonprofit Points of Light, sought to connect Gujarat Heavy Chemicals to Perdue’s outsourcing past.
“It seems to be another example of how David’s business record is not what he purported it to be,” Nunn said Monday, appearing at a service project in College Park.
“He was under oath saying he spent the majority of his career outsourcing, sending jobs to other countries. In that deposition he talked about 16 different countries. Just not one mention of creating jobs in the United States of America.”
Republicans say Nunn's outsourcing attacks are hypocritical considering that her father, former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, is a longtime board member of General Electric, which was a pioneer of outsourcing. A GE executive who oversees outsourcing also threw a fundraiser for Nunn.
“Liberal Michelle Nunn’s hypocrisy on ‘outsourcing’ truly is rich,” said Leslie Shedd, of the Georgia Republican Party. “The truth is that Nunn will say whatever she can to hide the facts about her own terrible record.”
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