AIAC TO PRESENT MUSICAL TRIBUTES TO BUFFETT AND GREENSPAN AT NY FINANCIAL WRITERS ASSOCIATION GALA

Statement by L. M. Levie

"I am delighted to be joining my friends, the financial writers of New York, at this year's Financial Follies - men and women who can turn a quarterly earnings call into a thriller and a Federal Reserve statement into a mystery novel. On November 20, New York's majestic Edison Ballroom will hold the greatest concentration of financial brainpower in America - a distinction normally reserved for whichever Omaha Dairy Queen Warren Buffett happens to be visiting on any day of the week."

"Financial journalists have a hard job. When the market goes up, nobody calls to say thank you. When it goes down, everybody calls to ask why you didn't warn them. And when it goes sideways, the world takes a nap. Yet since 1938, the members of this Association have done that job with rigor, independence and courage - and once a year, at the Follies, they finally get to say what they really think."

"I am especially pleased that the Association will honor Rebecca Blumenstein. She has done what few in our time have managed: she has helped lead The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and NBC News - and remained on speaking terms with all three. She has covered General Motors in Detroit, the collapse of WorldCom, and China's rise to the second-largest economy on earth, which means there is no balance sheet she cannot read and no excuse she has not already heard. A Pulitzer, a Loeb, an Emmy - at this rate, the Elliott V. Bell Award will not be the end of the road. It will merely be the next stop. She is, quite simply, the editor every reporter hopes to have and every chief executive hopes to avoid."

"For Warren, I composed a stirring biographical ballad. I offered him the rights for a dollar. He's still waiting for the price to come down. To honor Alan, I composed a jazz requiem. I should warn the audience that this work may cause irrational exuberance. If it does, I can only say what Alan would have said - at considerable length, and with no one quite sure what I meant."

"I look forward to seeing many friends at this year's Financial Follies. I can confidently forecast good company, good music and good-humored satire - although, as every Wall Streeter will remind you, past performance is no guarantee of future results."

About Rebecca Blumenstein

Rebecca Blumenstein is President, Editorial, of NBC News, where she directs journalism and original content across the organization's broadcast and digital platforms. She oversees NBC News editorial teams, newsgathering, field operations and booking, the network's signature programs "Meet the Press," "NBC Nightly News" and "Dateline NBC," and NBC News Studios. Since joining NBC News in 2023, she has strengthened editorial collaboration across the network's broadcast, digital and streaming platforms, as well as with NBCUniversal local stations, Noticias Telemundo and CNBC. In 2025, she received a News & Documentary Emmy Award in the long-form category for NBC News's exclusive interview with President Biden during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Before joining NBC News, Ms. Blumenstein was Deputy Managing Editor of The New York Times, where she led an expansion and elevation of the paper's business coverage, guided its live and breaking-news coverage, and led the news desk through the pandemic and the 2020 election. As Deputy Editor in the Publisher's Office from 2021 to 2022, she worked closely with Publisher A.G. Sulzberger, including on the resettlement of more than 200 current and former Afghan employees of The Times and their families after the fall of Kabul.

Previously, Ms. Blumenstein spent 22 years at The Wall Street Journal, rising to Deputy Editor in Chief. Joining the Journal in 1995 as a reporter in its Detroit bureau covering General Motors, she went on to lead its New York Technology Group, serve as Managing Editor of WSJ.com, Page One Editor and International Editor, and serve as China bureau chief from 2005 to 2009, leading the team that won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. She was also part of the team that won the 2003 Gerald Loeb Award for deadline writing for its coverage of WorldCom. She began her career at The Tampa Tribune, Gannett Newspapers in Westchester, and Newsday.

Ms. Blumenstein is Chair of the Board of the Columbia Journalism Review, serves on the board of Wallace House at the University of Michigan, and is a final judge of the Gerald Loeb Awards. A 2009 Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute, she holds a bachelor's degree in economics and social science from the University of Michigan, where she was Editor in Chief of The Michigan Daily.

About the New York Financial Writers' Association

Founded in 1938, the New York Financial Writers' Association (NYFWA) is the nation's oldest organization of financial and business journalists. For more than eighty-five years, its members have chronicled the booms, busts, and transformations of the world economy.

NYFWA is dedicated to advancing the standards of financial journalism. Its members are reporters, editors, columnists, and producers who cover markets, economics, banking, and business. The Association supports their work through education, scholarships, professional development, and networking.

The Leading Media Represented

NYFWA members and Financial Follies guests include journalists and editors from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg News, Reuters, CNBC, NBC News, Fox Business Network, Business Insider, and Institutional Investor, among many other leading news organizations.

The Financial Follies

First staged in 1938, the Financial Follies is a cherished New York tradition that brings together hundreds of journalists, media executives, and leaders from business and finance for an evening of dinner, entertainment, and good-humored satire of the year's economic news. Proceeds fund NYFWA scholarships for journalism students at Baruch College, Columbia University, New York University, and the City University of New York.

This year, the Association will present the Elliott V. Bell Award to Rebecca Blumenstein of NBC News, along with the Impact Award for Distinguished Financial Journalism.

For further information, please see: www.nyfwa.org

About American Industrial Acquisition Corporation

American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC) is a diversified industrial group with manufacturing and distribution sites in 24 countries in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia-New Zealand. AIAC has acquired and grown non-core subsidiaries and divisions of Boeing, Siemens, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Johnson Controls, Merck, Pfizer, Astellas, Visteon, Carlyle, Ahlstrom, Tolko, Groupe Suez, Groupe Rexel, and many other leading multinational corporations.

AIAC companies serve companies and governmental entities worldwide in all major sectors, including aviation, space, defense, automotive, truck, rail, marine, petrochemical, solar, nuclear, civil engineering and infrastructure, commercial construction, mining, dredging, disaster relief, education, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals. AIAC companies are also exclusive, authorized distributors of leading branded industrial products and serve as critical suppliers for the construction of major airports, schools, hospitals, performing arts and sports centers, offices, and hotels throughout Southeast Asia and New Zealand. AIAC is a leading manufacturer of building, street, and highway signage in Europe, and a distributor of electrical products throughout France and New Zealand.

Of note, AIAC purchased Boeing Canada in 2005 and has produced over 10,000 unique components for every Boeing jet plane ever since, reliably serving Boeing from manufacturing facilities in North America. A leader in ultra-high precision jet engine component manufacturing, AIAC companies produce 2,200 fan blades for each jet engine produced by GE, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce, and Honeywell.

AIAC companies actively support exploration into outer space, manufacturing critical components for launching and propelling spacecraft and satellites. AIAC customers in this sector include NASA, the European Space Agency, SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Boeing. AIAC companies also lead in the design and manufacture of undersea umbilical cables for worldwide oceanographic research.

AIAC companies produce the critical automotive wire and cable for Tesla, GM, Ford, Chrysler-Fiat, Toyota, and Nissan. In connection with its kraft paper manufacturing interests in Canada and the US, AIAC sustainably manages 22 million acres of Manitoba, Canada forestland, an area equivalent in size to the nation of Hungary. AIAC affiliate Metallwarenfabrik Gemmingen GmbH, located in Germany, designs, manufactures, and distributes high performance, emergency portable power generators utilized in global conflict zones and during natural disasters.

For further information, please see: https://www.aiac.com

About AIAC Philanthropy

AIAC and the AIAC Foundation are devoted patrons of the performing arts, supporting Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera, l'Opéra national de Paris, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Royal Academy of Music, and the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival.

They also support nonprofit, nonsectarian, bipartisan organizations devoted to exploration, conflict resolution, disaster relief, economic development, and environmental sustainability, including the National Geographic Society, the Royal Geographical Society, Mission Blue, the Jane Goodall Institute, and the American Museum of Natural History. AIAC affiliates Bradford Space, Canadian Kraft Paper Industries, SuperAlloy Manufacturing Solutions, and Champlain Cable are Partners of The Explorers Club and Climate Week, and Sponsors of Oceans Week.

AIAC Chairman L. M. Levie is Chairman of the D'Oyly Carte Foundation and the AIAC Foundation; Patron of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company of London and of Harvard's Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770, home of the oldest theatrical organization in the United States; Trustee, Poet Laureate, and Annual Dinner Committee Member of The Explorers Club; Trustee of the Theodore Roosevelt Association and a member of Advisory Committee of the Ellis Island Honors Society. Mr. Levie is also a Legacy Society Member of the Council on Foreign Relations; a Centennial Society Member of the Economic Club of New York; and a Member of the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., the Trilateral Commission, the Bretton Woods Committee, the Yale CEO Summit, and the Renaissance Weekend.

For further information, please see: https://www.aiac.com/our-values

About AIAC Video Tributes

The original video tributes of AIAC Chairman L. M. Levie represent a unique fusion of heraldic poetry, original orchestral music, and dynamic visual production. Formally paired with the graphics and cinematic editing of AIAC Vice President Isabel Carro-Toro, these works honor remarkable lives, foundational institutions, and historic milestones.

Mr. Levie's creative expressions have uniquely crossed the threshold from elite institutional presentation to massive global digital engagement. Serving as Poet Laureate and Trustee of The Explorers Club, his poetic and musical tributes have been featured in solemn ceremonies and festive celebrations at the world's most prestigious venues. These have included NASA, the United Nations, the U.S. Senate, the Vatican, the French Embassy in Washington, D.C., the Foreign Policy Association, the Luxembourg Consulate, the Union League Club, and the Royal Thames Yacht Club.

Throughout his creative journey, Mr. Levie has composed and presented bespoke tributes honoring legendary figures in finance, philanthropy, religion, science, and exploration-including Warren Buffett, Alan Greenspan, Mike Bloomberg, Lloyd Blankfein, Ken Griffin, Mike Milken, Popes Francis and Leo XVI, and Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell. His musical video tributes were featured in the New York memorial services honoring Jane Goodall and Ted Turner at the Explorers Club and at the Annual Peter G. Peterson Leadership Award presented to Mike Bloomberg at the Economic Club of New York.

These works have met with wide acclaim, expanding far beyond private gatherings to reach audiences worldwide. Notably, his poignant musical tribute honoring NASA pioneer Nancy Grace Roman, titled She Opened the Heavens, caught the attention of renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. By sharing the piece directly to his personal X and Instagram feeds, Dr. Tyson enthusiastically introduced Mr. Levie's work to a combined digital audience of over 16.8 million followers.

As the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary, Mr. Levie has created a series of commemorative musical video tributes honoring the Liberty Bell, the Statue of Liberty, and President Theodore Roosevelt, three lasting icons of the American spirit.

A sampling of these celebrated musical video tributes can be viewed at: https://vimeo.com/aiacvideo.

Media Contact

Isabel Carro-Toro, Vice President
American Industrial Acquisition Corporation
+34 689 295 827 (Spain)
+1 787 244 3175 (USA)

[email protected]

# # #