https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/10/09/pritzker-practices-commercial-diplomacy-in-ukraine-turkey/
U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker isn’t afraid to travel to hot spots. Recently returned from a mission that took her to Ukraine, Poland, and Turkey, she is ready to enter another volatile area if she thinks her style of "commercial diplomacy" can make a difference.
The former hotel magnate says she thinks commerce plays a vital role in quelling many forms of civil unrest, including armed conflicts.
Commercial diplomacy is a tool, just like military force and political pressure, that the United States can use to address crises of all kinds, she said during an interview with Foreign Policy on Tuesday, Oct. 7.
"It should be part of the DNA of our international engagement," said Pritzker, a billionaire whose family owned the Hyatt hotel chain before its 2009 public offering. Talking on a business, entrepreneurial, and commercial level is just another way the United States can interact with other countries, she said.
While visiting Ukraine, which she said was a "follow-up" to President Petro Poroshenko’s mid-September visit to Washington, she told Poroshenko — another former business leader — to use the international spotlight shining on his country to address systemic corruption and make the former Soviet republic more attractive to foreign businesses.
"Let’s not waste a good crisis," she said she told Poroshenko, paraphrasing Chicago Mayor — and former White House chief of staff — Rahm Emanuel.