Peter G. Peterson

Pete Peterson is Senior Chairman and Co-Founder of The Blackstone Group, a leading U.S. private investment firm. He also serves as chair of the Council on Foreign Relations, and is the founding chairman of both the Institute for International Economics (Washington, D.C.) and The Concord Coalition. Mr. Peterson was Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (2000- 2004), and was the co-chair of The Conference Board Commission on Public Trust and Private Enterprises (co-chaired by John Snow, currently Secretary of the Treasury). Prior to founding Blackstone, Mr. Peterson was Chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers (1973-1977) and later Chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers, Kuhn, Loeb Inc. (1977-1984). He was Chairman and CEO of Bell and Howell Corporation from 1963 to 1971. Additionally, Mr. Peterson has served as a director for the Sony Corporation, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, Federated Department Stores, Black & Decker Manufacturing Company, General Foods Corporation, RCA, The Continental Group, and Cities Service.

An Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs under President Nixon, Mr. Peterson was named Secretary of Commerce in 1972. At that time he also assumed the Chairmanship of President Nixon's National Commission on Productivity and was appointed U.S. Chairman of the U.S.-Soviet Commercial Commission. Mr. Peterson is the author of several books, including Running On Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It, and Gray Dawn: How the Coming Age Wave Will Transform America and the World. He has been awarded honorary Ph.D. degrees by Colgate University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Northwestern University, New School University, the University of Rochester, and Southampton College of Long Island University.