Forty million dollar Bill: Earning power of an ex-leader

When you are there, in person, you get an idea of what all the fuss and bother is about. When you see how he effortlessly connects with an audience, somehow making it appear he is speaking to each and every one of them individually, you understand why people will pay good money to listen to Bill Clinton.

Take, for example, the Democratic convention in the summer of 2004 in Boston. Knowing that Clinton's oratorical skills would drown those of the presidential candidate John Kerry, officials made sure the men addressed the party faithful on different days. It made no difference; despite Mr Kerry's efforts it was Clinton's speech, and that of the then-unknown Barack Obama, that people remembered.

Or how about that October, just two months after he had undergone quadruple heart by-pass surgery, when Clinton stumped for Mr Kerry in Philadelphia in the final days of the election campaign. "If that's not good for my heart I don't know what is," Clinton told the crowd, putting his hand to his chest as 20,000 people cheered and roared. Even on that occasion, with his powers greatly reduced, he held his audience transfixed.

But if it has long been known how good a speaker Clinton is, it has now been revealed just how profitable an endeavour it has become for him. A report in a US newspaper shows that from having left the White House six years ago in deep debt, the former president has now amassed around $40m (£20m) from speaking fees. Last year alone he averaged around one speech a day and earned almost $10m.

An awful lot of the speeches he delivers are not for money. Of last year's 352 appearances only 20 per cent were for personal gain, the majority being given for no fee or in exchange for a contribution to the charitable foundation he has established to engage in such causes as Aids prevention and urban renewal. The William J Clinton foundation has reportedly received $60m this way.

When he does appear for money, his bank account is boosted by hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time. The New York-based investment bank Goldman Sachs ­ whose employees are major contributors to the campaign of his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton ­ has paid the former president $650,000 for four speeches in recent years. Meanwhile, Citigroup paid him $250,000 for a single speech in France in 2004. And Clinton is not scrambling to find work; he makes hundreds of speeches, but receives thousands of requests.

Clinton's appeal as a speaker is twofold. He is both a masterful orator and a true A-list celebrity. People want to hear him speak but they also want to associate themselves with him, just as they might with a film star. Stephen Hess, Professor of public affairs at George Washington University and a former speech writer for President John F Kennedy, said Clinton was on, occasion, a great speaker, but that was only part of the draw.

"Clinton is a great celebrity ­ and people want to come out and look at him," he said. "From the [event] host's point of view that can make them money, they can sell tickets for the event, but normally it is done for public relations or branding purposes."

Of Clinton's skills, he added: "He is like a musician. He takes a theme and does a riff, so it does not necessarily come out like the speech-writer would do it for him. Of course, he is a very smart guy so it's also true that he has a lot to say... He likes to speak because he likes words, he likes thoughts."

Clinton ­ and his speech-writers ­ also have the knack for killer lines. How about this simple, effective and memorable line from his inaugural address in January 1993. "There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America." Or how about this rather hokey gem, offered up to reporter Joe Klein: "Character is a journey, not a destination."

Sylvia Tidy-Harris, managing director of The Speakers Agency, which represents people ranging from Toyah Willcox to Rageh Omaar, said of Clinton: "He is a great orator, he is fantastic. He is one of the few people I would pay money to go and see."

Clinton's abilities as a speaker and a campaigner have also long been recognised by his wife. In her 2003 memoir Living History, Mrs Clinton noted that the first time she spotted her future husband, he was delivering an impromptu speech to fellow students at Yale.

She wrote: "He ... had a vitality that seemed to shoot out of his pores. When I first saw him in the law school's student lounge, he was holding forth before a rapt audience of fellow students. As I walked by, I heard him say '...and not only that, we grow the biggest water melons in the world'. I asked a friend 'Who is that?'. 'Oh, that's Bill Clinton', he said. 'He's from Arkansas and that's all he ever talks about'."

For Mrs Clinton, her husband's abilities are a double-edged sword. While she wants to capitalise on his campaigning power and popularity, appearing with him at an event where both of them speak is almost certain to add to the impression that she can be cold and somewhat robotic. As a result, Mrs Clinton's aides are drawing up plans for her husband to campaign for his wife, but largely without her being present.

Of course, Clinton is not the first former president to have turned to speaking as a way of earning money. Ronald Reagan made headlines shortly after he left office in 1989 when he travelled to Japan and earned $2m for personal appearances. Likewise both George Bush Sr and Jimmy Carter have earned considerable income from speaking.

But few appear to have the same combination of A-list celebrity and charisma that Clinton appears to ooze. The former president's spokesman, Jay Carson, told The Washington Post: "The reason that we picked paid speeches is that it is an efficient way for him to make a living for his family and allow him a lot of time to do charitable work, which is his passion."

Of deciding which invitations to accept and which to politely decline, Mr Carson said Clinton tried to combine charitable work, his personal appearances and speeches that will benefit the Democrats. He added: "We take a look at his schedule and say, 'All right, he has to be in this place for this paid speech. There are three or four great things we've been meaning to do in this place. Let's do them'."

An example of this was last year when Clinton had been booked for a $150,000 speech in Denver, Colorado, before the National Apartment Association, a trade body that represents landlords. On discovering that efforts to raise funds to build a memorial to the victims of Columbine were struggling, he offered to make a speech at a special ceremony. As a result, the fund-raising saw an immediate boost. On that Colorado trip he also spoke to a group of head teachers.

Yet the report, published yesterday, revealed that despite careful vetting and painstaking planning, Clinton's line of work has occasionally left him open to controversy. In 2005, for instance, he travelled to a resort in the Bahamas and earned $150,000 from the Swiss bio-technology firm Serono International. A few months later, the company pleaded guilty to two federal conspiracy charges and paid $704m in fines. Likewise, in December 2001 he accepted $125,000 to address an Illinois-based company at the centre of sexual harassment allegations.

Mr Carson admitted: "We take our vetting process very seriously and we do our best to catch any issues. And given the volume of that, we are not always perfect."

One thing appears certain ­ Bill Clinton will not be giving up speaking in public any time soon. Not only does he relish the attention, but given how profitable it has become it is hard to see why he would want to stop. As he joked with a US audience last year: "I never had a nickel to my name until I got out of the White House and now I'm a millionaire, the most favoured person for the Washington Republicans. I get a tax cut every year, no matter what our needs are."

Speak easy: other big earners

* RUDOLPH GIULIANI

He may not be a world leader just yet (although he is a major Republican presidential hopeful), but Rudy Giuliani has been able to capitalise on his income since standing down as mayor of New York. Thanks to his expert handling of the situation post-September 11, Giuliani is loved by politicians and businessmen alike, and reportedly earns up to $200,000 (£100,000) a speech.

* PERVEZ MUSHARRAF

Pervez Musharraf may still be president of Pakistan but that didn't stop him using a visit to the US late last year to publicise his somewhat self-congratulatory autobiography, In the Line of Fire, for which he was reportedly paid a hefty six-figure sum. Despite being panned by critics, the book has sold millions of copies worldwide. His appearance on the cult comedy hit The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has cemented his reputation as a charismatic and surprisingly witty speaker.

* NELSON MANDELA

Ever since his release from prison, the former South African President has happily used his name and reputation to generate a steady flow of income, which is usually then piled into charitable causes. From winning the Nobel Peace Prize (worth $1m) in 1993 to speeches and appearances that can easily command six-figure sums, he has become one of the most financially successful former leaders. Even his paintings have been known to fetch ten of thousands of pounds.

* MIKHAIL GORBACHEV

Successfully turning the world's largest Communist state into a fully fledged member of the capitalist community not only paid dividends for Mikhail Gorbachev when he was in power, it has since made him one of the world's most highly sought-after speakers. Since departing office, Gorbachev has become one of the world's best-paid speakers, a prominent fundraiser, a memoirist and even appeared in a Pizza Hut advert. His latest incarnation is as a fully paid-up member of New York's writing elite with a column in the New York Times.

* TONY BLAIR

Leaving a lasting legacy is not only a good way to ensure your name is remembered after you are gone, it can also ensure financial success on the lecture circuit. Now commanding a salary of around £200,000, conservative estimates of Tony Blair's post-Downing Street earnings exceed £20m. If he ever writes the by now-mandatory memoirs, publishers have suggested the Prime Minister could easily command a seven-figure advance, as well as lecture and after-dinner speech fees projected to be well above the £100,000 mark.

* JOHN MAJOR

Although he has kept a relatively low profile since leaving office, former Prime Minister Sir John Major commands fees in excess of £25,000 as an after-dinner speaker. For that sum, his agency says, "Mr Major can provide audiences with insights and his own opinions on the expanding European Union, the future of the rest of the world in the 21st century and also about Britain". A tabloid investigation in the late Nineties claimed that Mr Major received a £600,000 advance on his memoirs and that one eight-day speaking tour netted him £160,000.

* WILLIAM HAGUE

Before taking up his post as Shadow Foreign Secretary, William Hague was believed to earn more than £1m a year after he stepped down as Conservative leader. He received at least £385,000 for 53 speaking engagements, a further £160,000 for his column in the News of the World, and another £110,000 from advisory jobs. Since the beginning of last year, he has scaled back his commitments to concentrate on his job in the shadow cabinet, but is still the highest-paid Member of Parliament, thought to earn around £400,000.