Frank Laukien

Frank Laukien has been chairman, president and chief executive officer of Bruker Corporation since February 1991, according to the company's 2022 proxy statement, which also calls him "our largest stockholder." He holds a B.S. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in chemical physics from Harvard University; served on the Dean's Advisory Committee of the MIT School of Science until 2014 and on the Visiting Committee of the MIT Department of Chemistry; was elected a senator of acatech, the German National Academy of Science and Engineering, in May 2017; co-chairs a working group of the American Association for Cancer Research on cancer evolution; and is a visiting scholar in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard. The proxy lists him as "co-founder of two start-up venture companies in therapeutics and space exploration, respectively, as well as of the non-profit Galileo Project at Harvard University."¹

Bruker holdings and pay

Bruker's proxy statement filed April 22, 2022 reports that Laukien beneficially owned 40,448,233 shares, 27.1 percent of the class, as of April 7, 2022. The total includes 1,046,499 shares owned by Robyn Laukien and 492 shares owned by Ruta Laukien, both described as former spouses, over which he has sole voting power; 336,607 shares held by his adult daughter and 337,087 by his adult son; and 273,430 shares held as custodian for minor children. It states that 5,000,000 shares "have been pledged by Dr. Laukien to secure a personal loan," and the related-party section describes a grandfathered pledge of 5,000,000 shares to secure a personal line of credit of up to 10 million dollars. His 2021 total compensation in the summary table was 5,594,539 dollars, including a salary of 811,581 dollars and a cash incentive of 1,615,669 dollars.¹

Family transactions with Bruker

The same proxy reports that Dirk Laukien (half-brother), Joerg Laukien (brother) and Ms. Laukien-Kleiner (stepmother) co-own ZeroC Project GmbH, which rents two properties in Faellanden, Switzerland to Bruker BioSpin AG; Bruker paid 242,923 dollars in rent to ZeroC in 2021 for one of them. Isolde Laukien and Dirk Laukien co-own another Faellanden property rented to Bruker BioSpin AG, for which it paid 242,822 dollars in 2021 before the lease ended June 30, 2021. Dirk Laukien owns QA Group, LLC doing business as Quantum Analytics, which bought 311,912 dollars of equipment from Bruker in 2021 for leasing to third parties. The proxy states that the payments equaled estimated fair market rent and that sales were in the ordinary course.¹ Joerg Laukien and a "Laukien Science Foundation" appear on the Galileo Project's Philanthropic Advisory Board.²

Board and political contributions

The same proxy lists William A. Linton, chairman, president and chief executive of Promega Corporation and founder and executive director of the Usona Institute, as a Bruker director since 2000 and member of its Nominating & Governance Committee; Linton and the Laukien Science Foundation appear together on the Galileo Project's Philanthropic Advisory Board.¹²

Federal Election Commission itemized receipts list a Frank Laukien of North Hampton, New Hampshire, with employer Bruker Corporation, as donor of 500,000 dollars (December 5, 2023), 490,000 dollars (January 8, 2024) and 200,000 dollars (January 18, 2024) to Independents Moving the Needle (committee C00858381, an independent-expenditure-only committee registered November 29, 2023 with Jonathan Bush as treasurer), plus in-kind canvassing and meal expenses of 3,940 dollars and 2,186.40 dollars; 4,000 dollars to Nikki Haley for President (November 6, 2023); and, on April 3, 2024, 10,000 dollars to the Forward Party. Earlier receipts under "Laukien, Frank H." of Boston list 5,000 dollars to the Scott Brown for U.S. Senate committee on July 18, 2012, 5,000 dollars each to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Scott Brown Victory Committee on September 20 and 28, 2012, and 5,200 dollars to the Brown Victory Committee on September 26, 2014.³

In January 2024 Laukien and Jonathan Bush, described as a technology entrepreneur who has worked in health care and a cousin of George W. Bush, were reported as co-founders of the "Independents Moving the Needle" super PAC, which was not affiliated with the Haley campaign and was targeting roughly 200,000 independent voters in New Hampshire whom it thought could be swayed to support Haley; Laukien was described as a billionaire businessman and scientist. Laukien said of Haley: "It was very, very impressive in how issue after issue, she really had a clear understanding, a rational approach to it and an attitude of wanting to solve the many issues that we do have as a country," and that "we actually think that she could be the not only next generation leader, but perhaps a transformational leader who could work across the aisle." He also said, "I'm not a big fan of identity politics." The group hoped to deny Donald Trump a win in the New Hampshire primary of January 23, 2024.⁴

Galileo Project and the Laukien fellowship

The July 26, 2021 Galileo Project release states that the project "has been co-founded by Avi Loeb and Frank Laukien." The project later named its first postdoctoral appointee the "Laukien-Oumuamua fellow," Richard Cloete, in May 2022.⁵⁶ Inverse wrote in July 2021 that the project "appears to be connected to the Laukien Science Foundation, spearheaded by billionaire Frank Laukien and William A. Linton"; the Galileo Project's own listing gives the foundation and Linton as board entries without stating who runs the foundation.²⁷ A ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer search for "Laukien Science Foundation" returned no organization.⁸