A new influential figure in Ukraine's relations with the United States has emerged, and by all indications, she holds significant sway. On September 14, President Biden appointed Penny Pritzker to the newly created position of Special Representative for Ukraine's Economic Recovery.

Penny Pritzker is known to experts in American politics as the former Secretary of Commerce, serving in this role throughout President Obama's second term.

Penny comes from the influential Pritzker family, one of the wealthiest families in the United States with a combined wealth of roughly $37 billion. Her personal wealth exceeds $3 billion.

The Pritzker family immigrated to the United States from Ukraine over 100 years ago. The village of Velyki Pritsky in the south of Kyiv Oblast is named after Penny’s great-grandparents.

Penny Pritzker talked to us about her new role and how to convince Western businesses to invest in Ukraine even in wartime.

– I understand you have Ukrainian roots. Do you still feel a connection?

– First of all, I’m really incredibly honored to be appointed by President Biden to serve as the Special Representative for Ukraine's Economic Recovery, and I am very excited to be able to return to the country and visit, and I look forward to doing that in the upcoming period.

The war is horrific, and the actions taken by Russia are outrageous. And for me, the chance to represent the United States in this role is personal, because my family fled Ukraine in the late 1800s from an area just outside Kyiv, so my family are immigrants from the area that is being challenged by the Russians.

Having the opportunity on behalf of the United States to work with our allies and partners to help Ukraine remain an independent democratic state, progressing on its chosen path of European integration, is a calling of the highest order.

My family were grain store owners originally and left because of a pogrom in Tsarist Russia.

When my great-grandfather Nicholas immigrated from outside of Kyiv to Chicago, he spoke no English. Neither he nor my great-grandmother really had a lot of resources. But they were able to educate themselves.

My great-grandfather went from being a young boy learning English by selling newspapers on Maxwell Street in Chicago to becoming first a pharmacist and then a lawyer. My great-grandmother started the Nickel Club in Chicago: each week the women in her community would put aside a nickel or a penny to help new immigrants from Ukraine.

And so this is a big part of my history.

– Now you will be able to help Ukraine to recover from a post-war state and become a prosperous economy. But what will your role be, what is in your portfolio?

– My portfolio includes working with the government of Ukraine, with Ambassador Brink and the entirety of the US government, the private sector, and of course our allies, to accelerate Ukraine's economic recovery.

And the focus will begin with working on reforms that bake in transparency and accountability into the reconstruction effort, whether that’s in the regulatory environment or law enforcement, judiciary, anti-corruption, state-owned enterprise governance, etc.

Another big part of my portfolio is working with the private sector to not just remove the barriers to investment, but really to encourage companies in a variety of sectors of the economy, particularly in energy, transportation, logistics, agriculture, critical materials, and IT technology. I aim to encourage American businesses and other businesses to understand the opportunity for investment and recovery in Ukraine.

And then, of course, I will be an authoritative representative to the multi-agency donor coordination platform, working with our partner governments and the EU and the international financial institutions, as well as the private sector.

And then, of course, communicating both with Congress about the importance of economic recovery to the success of Ukraine now and post-war, as well as communicating with the diaspora in the United States as to the status of our engagement and the opportunities that exist in Ukraine.

So it's an economically driven portfolio, but it’s broad, it has many facets.

– I see one element missing, which is Russian money that should be seized and invested in rebuilding Ukraine. Would this also be one of the key elements of Ukraine’s economic revival?

– The policy of the administration is that we're determined that those who have been enabling Putin's war will also help pay its cost.

Secretary Blinken has announced the first use of seized oligarch assets for veterans’ programs. There will be more of this to come, and it definitely will be part of the portfolio, working with the Treasury Department and others, because part of my job is to work with the interagency.

– 2024 is an election year in the United States. Can we be sure of the sustainability of the United States’ support?

– We’re focused on meeting the needs of Ukraine now, as well as for the long-term recovery and security of Ukraine. We, the United States – I speak not just for the administration, I've heard the same from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle: there's bipartisan long-term support for Ukraine.

There will be conditions to the money from the United States. That shouldn't be surprising to anyone in Ukraine, because our government wants to see Ukraine make progress on the various areas to make the environment hospitable to private sector investment.

– What kind of conditions do you expect the Ukrainian government to meet?

– First, it’s handling the money appropriately.

And second, it’s meeting the reform needs that are necessary for Ukraine to achieve EU accession and become part of a Western trading bloc, which is something that Ukraine wants to do, so I feel this is a virtuous circle.

– The EU will definitely play a role in the recovery of Ukraine too. What is the US approach?

– Dozens of countries have participated in supporting Ukraine, whether it’s on the security side, the humanitarian side, or the economic side.

My job will be to continue ensuring that we share the burden with our allies and other world players, and to mobilize resources around the world, including to attract the transformative power of the private sector.

– Do you expect foreign businesses to start investing in Ukraine in wartime?

– Economic recovery is going on now. Housing is being built, infrastructure is being invested in, energy is being invested in.

I think that showing the private sector what is possible now and what can be done safely is a big part of my job.

But Ukraine has shown great resilience during wartime. The private sector needs to understand in better detail the situation on the ground, which is one of the reasons I look forward to visiting Ukraine.

– How can you convince businesses to invest in Ukraine if a missile strike could destroy their investment in a second?

– Even now, if you look at the technology sector in Ukraine, it’s growing. Another obvious opportunity is the energy grid, which is basically a Soviet-era one. It will need to be reconstituted, first of all into more Western technology, but also there’s an opportunity to leapfrog into a green grid.

In terms of agriculture, Ukraine’s capability to produce agriculture that the rest of the world wants is well known. The question is, can it also expand it into [more value-added] agricultural processing? That’s one of the reasons we make sure that the trade routes are functioning, and that’s one of the challenges that needs to be addressed from a security standpoint.

Then there's the obvious need for opportunities to invest in critical minerals and materials, mining and steel, all of which Europe and the rest of the world need and have a demand for.

And finally, there's a real need for investment in transportation and logistics. This is an opportunity for business.

Of course, the need for security is absolutely essential as well as the need for insurance.

I'll be working to make sure there's adequate insurance from the US Development Finance Corporation, from the EBRD, and the World Bank.

– The final question: do you feel partly Ukrainian? Do you think you may be seen as too pro-Ukrainian?

– The whole world has been inspired by the resilience and determination of the Ukrainian people. I’m simply one person who has been asked to help, and I’m honored that the president has asked me to try and help the Ukrainian people to thrive and become prosperous and remain an independent country and support your path to Euro-Atlantic integration.

This is bigger than any one person. This is an opportunity for the world to come together and stand up against the outrageous behaviors of the Russian leadership and government.

– Let’s clarify: do you feel a bit Ukrainian?

– I feel enormous empathy and enormous close relations with the Ukrainian people. It is not lost on me that my family had to emigrate from Ukraine in order to survive.

I want to be supportive to Ukrainians in the best ways that I can.

Interviewed by Sergiy Sydorenko

European Pravda, Editor