The following is a list of prominent persons who are known to have attended one or more conferences organized by the Bilderberg meeting. The list is currently organized by category. It is not a complete list and it includes both living and deceased people. Where known, the year(s) they attended are denoted in parentheses, while years denoting unrelated titles and positions are in brackets.
European Union Commissioners who have attended include:
The Bilderberg Meeting is an annual off-the-record forum established in 1954 to foster dialogue between Europe and North America. The group's agenda, originally to prevent another world war, is now defined as bolstering a consensus around free market Western capitalism and its interests around the globe. Participants include political leaders, experts, captains of industry, finance, academia, numbering between 120 and 150. Attendees are entitled to use information gained at meetings, but not attribute it to a named speaker. The group states that the purpose of this is to encourage candid debate while at the same time maintaining privacy, but critics from a wide range of viewpoints have called it into question, and it has provoked conspiracy theories from both the left and right.
The Trilateral Commission is a nongovernmental international organization aimed at fostering closer cooperation between Japan, Western Europe and North America. It was founded in July 1973, principally by American banker and philanthropist David Rockefeller, an internationalist who sought to address the challenges posed by the growing economic and political interdependence between the U.S. and its allies in North America, Western Europe, and Japan. The leadership of the organization has since focused on returning to "our roots as a group of countries sharing common values and a commitment to the rule of law, open economies and societies, and democratic principles".
Marek Marian Belka is a Polish professor of economics and politician who has served as Prime Minister of Poland and Finance Minister of Poland in two governments. He is a former Director of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) European Department and former Head of Narodowy Bank Polski. He has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since July 2019.
Stanley Fischer is an Israeli-American economist who served as the 20th vice chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2017. Fischer previously served as the 8th governor of the Bank of Israel from 2005 to 2013. Born in Northern Rhodesia, he holds dual citizenship in Israel and the United States. He previously served as First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund and as Chief Economist of the World Bank. On January 10, 2014, President Barack Obama nominated Fischer to the position of Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve. He is a senior advisor at BlackRock. On September 6, 2017, Stanley Fischer announced that he was resigning as Vice-Chair for personal reasons effective October 13, 2017, two days before his 74th birthday.
Josef Meinrad Ackermann is a Swiss banker, former Chairman of the Bank of Cyprus, and former chief executive officer of Deutsche Bank. He has also been a member of the Washington-based financial advisory body, the Group of Thirty.
The Munich Security Conference is an annual conference on international security policy that has been held in Munich, Bavaria, Germany since 1963. Formerly named the Munich Conference on Security Policy, the motto is: Peace through Dialogue. It is the world's largest gathering of its kind.
Jorma Jaakko Ollila is a Finnish businessman who was chairman of Royal Dutch Shell from 1 June 2006 to May 2015, and at Nokia Corporation chairman from 1999 to 2012 and CEO from 1992 to 2006. He has been a director of Otava Books and Magazines Group Ltd. since 1996 and UPM-Kymmene since 1997, and an advisory partner at Perella Weinberg Partners, a New York–based boutique investment bank founded by Joseph R. Perella and Peter Weinberg in 2006.
Børge Brende is a Norwegian politician and diplomat, and has been the president of the World Economic Forum since 2017. A member of the Conservative Party, he previously was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2017, Minister of the Environment from 2001 to 2004 and Minister of Trade and Industry from 2004 to 2005. He was also a member of the Norwegian Parliament from Sør-Trøndelag between 1997 and 2009.
Henri de La Croix de Castries is a French businessman. He was chairman and CEO of AXA until retiring from both roles on 1 September 2016.
Mark Joseph Carney is a Canadian economist and banker who was the governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013 and the governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020. He is chairman, and head of impact investing at Brookfield Asset Management since 2020, and was named chairman of Bloomberg Inc., parent company of Bloomberg L.P., in 2023. He was the chair of the Financial Stability Board from 2011 to 2018. Prior to his governorships, Carney worked at Goldman Sachs as well as the Department of Finance Canada. He also serves as the UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance.
Founded by Rabbi Arthur Schneier in 1965, the Appeal of Conscience Foundation is an interfaith partnership of corporate and spiritual leaders from all faiths who come together to promote "peace, tolerance and ethnic conflict resolution."
Jutta Pauliina Urpilainen is a Finnish politician. She was the first female chair of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, which she led from 2008 to 2014. She was the Minister of Finance as well as the Deputy Prime Minister of Finland from 2011 to 2014. Since 1 December 2019, she is the European Commissioner for International Partnerships in the European Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen. She announced her candidacy for the 2024 election for President of Finland in November 2023.
The Russia Forum was an annual event held in Moscow, hosted by Troika Dialog from 2008 to 2013. From 2012, The Russia Forum was jointly presented by Sberbank of Russia and Troika Dialog.
The Hamburg Summit: China meets Europe is a biennial high-level conference on Sino-European economic relations held in Hamburg. The Hamburg Chamber of Commerce initiated the first "Hamburg Summit" in 2004 to set up a platform for an open dialogue between Europe and China and to improve their economic relations.
Ronny Bruckner, also known as Yaron Bruckner, was a Belgian businessman.
The 2013 Bilderberg Conference took place June 6–9, 2013, at The Grove hotel in Watford, Hertfordshire, England. It was the first Bilderberg Group conference to be held in the United Kingdom since the 1998 meeting in Turnberry, Scotland.
The 2015 Bilderberg Conference took place between 11 and 14 June 2015 at the Interalpen-Hotel Tyrol in Telfs-Buchen, Austria. The hotel had previously held the Bilderberg Conference in 1988.
The Turkish state minister and chief negotiator, Ali Babacan, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Kemal Dervis, the Association of Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen (Tusiad) Chairwoman Arzuhan Dogan Yalcindag, Koc Holding Executive Board President Mustafa Koc and the Bogazici University rector, Prof Dr Ayse Soysal, will attend the meeting on behalf of Turkey. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen Sofia of Spain, Crown Prince Philippe of Belgium, Greek National Economy and Finance Minister Yeoryios Alogoskoufis, former Prime Minister Francisco Pinto Balsemao of Portugal, former Foreign Minister Michel Barnier of France, Foreign Minister Carl Bildt of Sweden, Finance Minister Anders Borg of Sweden, Foreign Trade Minister Frank Heemskerk of the Netherlands, Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen of Finland, former US secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, Agriculture Minister Christine Lagarde of France, Justice Minister Michael McDowell of Ireland, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato, the EU commissioner for enlargement, Olli Rehn, and the US ambassador to Turkey, Ross Wilson, are among foreign guests of the meeting. Meanwhile, tight security measures were taken in and around the Ritz Carlton Hotel, the venue of the meeting.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Prince Charles and Bill Clinton have been to sessions.
The 34th Bilderberg conference ended at Gleneagles Hotel, Perthshire, yesterday after a debate on the South African crisis attended by Prince Charles. He arrived for the economic debate on Saturday and stayed overnight at the hotel.
The Duke of Edinburgh took part today in the opening session of the Bilderberg meeting at the Villa d'Este on Lake Como.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Bernhard's visits abroad provided the background for an enterprise which interested him greatly, the Bilderberg conferences at which, from 1954 onwards, statesmen, businessmen and intellectuals from Europe and America had private discussions once or twice a year. The idea of the conferences originated with Dr Joseph H. Retinger as a counter to the anti-Americanism in Western Europe.
Several Canadian political figures have spoken at Bilderbergs, including prime ministers Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chrétien, New Brunswick premiers Bernard Lord and Frank McKenna, and former Ontario premier Mike Harris. Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office would not say yesterday whether he has been invited to attend the rumoured Ottawa meetings. Mr. Harper attended the 2003 conference in Versailles, France.
Lord Carrington, Conference chairman; former NATO secretary-general; Francisco Pinto Balsemao, Former prime minister of Portugal; Queen Beatrix, Netherlands; Lloyd Bentsen, Former treasury secretary, U.S.; Carl Bildt, The High Representative Sweden; Conrad Black, Chairman, Hollinger, Canada; Frits Bolkestein, Liberal party leader, Netherlands; Jean Chrétien, Prime minister of Canada; Etienne Davignon, Executive chairman, Societe Generale de Belgique, Belgium; Stanley Fischer, International Monetary Fund; Charles Freeman, Former assistant secretary of defence, U.S.; Mike Harris, Premier of Ontario; Richard Holbrooke, Former assistant secretary of state, U.S.; Peter Job, Chief executive, Reuters Holding, Britain; Lionel Jospin, Socialist party leader, France; Henry Kissinger, Former U.S. secretary of state; Andrew Knight, News Corp., Britain; Winston Lord, Assistant secretary of state, U.S.; Paul Martin, Finance minister, Canada; Philippe Maystadt, Finance minister, Belgium; John Monks, Union leader, Britain; Mario Monti, European commissioner; Sam Nunn, U.S. senator; William Perry, Defence secretary, U.S.; Jan Petersen, Conservative party leader, Norway; Malcolm Rifkind, Foreign secretary, Britain; Renato Ruggiero, Director-general, World Trade Organization; Mona Sahlin, Member of parliament, Sweden; Klaus Schwab, President, World Economic Forum; Queen Sofia, Spain; George Soros, President, Soros Fund Management, U.S.; George Stephanopoulos, Senior adviser to the president, U.S.; Peter Sutherland, Former director-general, GATT and WTO, Ireland; J. Martin Taylor, Chief executive, Barclays Bank, Britain; Alex Trotman, Chairman, Ford Motor, U.S.; John Whitehead, Former deputy secretary of state, U.S.; James Wolfensohn, World Bank president.
Mandelson's office has confirmed his attendance at this year's meeting: "Yes, Lord Mandelson attended Bilberberg. He found it a valuable conference."
The main purpose of M. Defferre's visit however, is to attend the annual Bilderberg Colloquy at which leaders of western thought are invited to speak their minds in the strictest secrecy.
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(help)The three-day 26th Bilderberg Meeting concluded at a secluded cluster of shingled buildings in what was once a farmer's field. Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's national security adviser, Swedish Prime Minister Thorbjorrn Falldin, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger and NATO Commander Alexander M. Haig Jr. were among 104 North American and European leaders at the conference.
Mr Paddy Ashdown is not yet wholly at ease with the trappings of office, even if the office in question is only that of leader of the Social and Liberal Democrats. Attending the Bilderberg Conference of European political leaders in Spain last week, he was deeply impressed by the splendour of the official cars and the intensity of the security precautions laid on for his arrival. Reaching the conference headquarters at last, he sank into a chair and said to his neighbour: 'Hello, I'm Paddy Ashdown.' The neighbour smiled diffidently, put out his hand, and said: 'Hello, I'm the King of Spain.'
Mr Clarke subsequently explained that he and Mr Blair considered that they were attending the conference as representatives of the Government and the Opposition respectively, and stated that 'I was quite confident that I was at the time meeting the rules applying to Ministers, and it did not occur to me that the new rules concerning registration could apply to this visit'.
3–6 June 1999, to Portugal, to attend Bilderberg meetings. I paid for my own air fare; the hotel accommodation for three nights was paid for by the organisers.
15–18 May 2003, to Versailles, France, to attend a Bilderberg Conference. I paid for my own air fare; the hotel accommodation for three nights was paid for by the organisers.
3–6 June 2004, to Stresa, Italy, to attend Bilderberg Conference. I paid for my own air fare; the hotel accommodation for three nights was paid for by the organisers.
5–8 June 2008, to Chantilly, Virginia, USA, to attend Bilderberg Conference. Hotel accommodation paid for by the conference sponsors. (I paid my travel costs.) (Registered 12 June 2008)
During the Falklands war, the British government's request for international sanctions against Argentina fell on stony ground. But at a Bilderberg meeting in, I think, Denmark, David Owen stood up and gave the most fiery speech in favour of imposing them. Well, the speech changed a lot of minds. I'm sure that various foreign ministers went back to their respective countries and told their leaders what David Owen had said. And you know what? Sanctions were imposed.
The outstretched hand of Mr. Powell was rejected by the leader of a coloured delegation which tried to present a petition to him today at the ski lodge at Mont Tremblanc Quebec, where Mr. Powell was attending the seventeenth annual Bilderberg conference.
In fact, Clinton, then governor of Arkansas and considered a rank outsider for the 1992 presidential race, first met Brown in June 1991 at the Bilderberg conference in the Black Forest resort of Baden-Baden. By all accounts, the two clicked.
Alec Douglas-Home, the former prime minister of Great Britain, chaired the conference, replacing Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, who had previously headed the Bilderberg invitation committee. (Prince Bernhard had resigned all public positions after the 1976 Lockheed scandal.)
Mrs Thatcher, the Conservative leader and Mr Healey, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, were among participants in the twenty second Bilderberg Conference.
Henry Kissinger will be there. So will Helmut Schmidt, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Joseph Luns, Giovanni Agnelli and Mrs Thatcher. This is the twenty-fifth Bilderberg meeting.
A man slipped through tight security to enter the grounds of the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire where the Prime Minister and other Western leaders were in conference over the weekend.
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Several members of Congress have been said to be on the guest list in the past, including Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Jon Corzine (D-N.J.), Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Evan Bayh (D-Ind.). Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C) took a break from the campaign trail to attend the meeting last year. Hagel's office confirmed that he had attended the conference in 1999 and 2000.
USA Daniels, Jr., Mitchell E. Governor of Indiana
Some of the names on the list are intriguing. Some of the well-known names include:Ben Bernanke – chairman, Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System; Condoleezza Rice – U.S. secretary of state; James A. Johnson – tasked with choosing U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's running mate; Paul Wolfowitz – with the Institute for Public Policy Research. The one name that stands out in my opinion this year is South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford.
He shows me another: a long-range shot of two happy globalists in an inflatable doughnut ring and Speedos, skidding about behind a powerboat. If only the image was sharper we might see Peter Mandelson snatching a chat with Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank. "So how do we sell ... splooosh! ... wooo! ... the abolition of the pound to the ... sploosh! ... electorate? Again! Again! Once more round the bay!"
Bilderberg-gruppen opererer i det skjulte. Gruppens første samling finner sted på Hotel Bilderberg i Holland i 1954. [...] I hans etterlatte arkiver avsløres hyppig korrespondanse med Bilderberg-organisasjonene grunnlegger. Her kommer det frem at Hauge har en sentral plass i styret i den hemmelige gruppen.
"What do Henry Kissinger, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Colin Powell, David Rockefeller and IBM Chairman Louis Gerstner have in common?"
"They are among 120 dignitaries from Europe and the United States meeting at a secluded resort in Georgia as part of an organization called the Bilderberg Group."
"For four days that began Thursday, the group's influential guests are part of an informal think tank on world issues."
when I attended the Bilderberg meeting at the Bürgenstock Hotel above Lake Lucerne
The final straw came this month when Black said he would sue Henry Kissinger and Richard Perle, both directors of Hollinger and fellow Bilderbergers. Now he is going to be pressed to leave the group.
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