"Oligarchs are, arguably, the main political actors of our era. Any attempt to try and understand who they are, what they are doing, and how they are doing it, is a worthy contribution to public debate ... TheOligarchs' Grip offers extraordinary intellectual value. This book provides a much-needed correction to so much academic literature, but even more so to popular culture and journalism." - David Siegel, PhD, Assistant Professor, St. Joseph's University, Brooklyn, New York
"Since time immemorial, oligarchs have shaped how societies function ... and planted the seeds of how they collapse. Given this, as human civilisation faces its latest crises, from environmental degradation and artificial intelligence, this book is a timely one. The portraits of oligarchs and analysis of the bases of their power helps readers to understand more fully how oligarchic power and money interact and nurture each other. No society should trust to luck that 'its' oligarchs are benign. Many are not. By explaining how oligarchs work, this book helps citizens understand how they may be made more accountable for the societies they make, and sometimes, disastrously, unmake." - Dr. Aidan McQuade, author of Ethical Leadership
David Lingelbach is professor of entrepreneurship at the Merrick School of Business, The University of Baltimore. He was educated at MIT, London School of Economics and Political Science, and University of Exeter, from which he received a Ph.D. Prior to becoming an academic, David served in senior roles in finance and international development, including as CEO of Bank of America's businesses in the former Soviet Union. He has been a Fulbright Scholar (Myanmar/Burma, 2018-19) and Fulbright Specialist (Colombia, 2021) and has been nominated twice for an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship.
Valentina Rodríguez Guerra is an author, oligarch researcher, and graduate student in business administration, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Nacional de Colombia. She has received awards for her work from NASA and the Colombian Ministry of Education.
Together, they are regular opinion contributors to The Hill on Vladimir Putin and oligarchs.