The reserve was his original philanthropic stake in Africa and his most sizable commitment to animal conservation.
It is a sizable commitment for a team that ranked 28th in the league in revenue last season at an estimated $221 million, according to Forbes magazine.
All indications, however, suggest that the president has settled on maintaining a sizable commitment of American forces in Iraq well into next year, with only a gradual reduction of troops from the current levels.
The United States is particularly eager to consolidate the fragile democratic change in Serbia because it is crucial to bolstering the chances of an enduring peace in the Balkans, where four wars in the last eight years have involved a sizable commitment of American resources to an unstable corner of Europe.
It's an honorable and important mission, to be sure, but up until now, that sizable commitment from Gates and Carnegie has been difficult to justify without any sense of how the organization actually plans to follow through on its ambitious goal.
But the Army also has sizable troop commitments elsewhere, including Afghanistan, the Balkans and the Korean peninsula, so the unexpectedly large requirements in Iraq have taxed the Army and its support personnel in the Army Reserve and National Guard.
Mr. Mayer passed (ostensibly because the role demanded a sizable time commitment), so producers held a casting call.
The firm, which has announced its first close with a sizable $200 million commitment, focuses on investments in energy, food, agriculture, health, education, and sustainable manufacturing.
But the lenders have sizable deal-related commitments on their books, a particularly worrisome matter for investment banks whose total business is smaller than that of leading money center banks like JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup.
Most Western leaders agree that if any country can make good on this continent's elusive promise, it will be South Africa, with its stable government, sizable economy and commitment to uplifting its people.
