The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), founded in 1921, is a United States nonprofit think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs. It is headquartered in New York City, with an additional office in Washington, D.C. Its membership, which numbers 5,103, has included senior politicians, more than a dozen secretaries of state, CIA directors, bankers, lawyers, professors, and senior media figures.
John William Snow is the former CEO of CSX Corporation, and served as the 73rd United States Secretary of the Treasury under U.S. President George W. Bush. He replaced Secretary Paul O'Neill on February 3, 2003 and was succeeded by Henry Paulson on July 3, 2006, in a move that had been anticipated. Snow submitted a letter of resignation on May 30, 2006, effective "after an orderly transition period for my successor." Snow announced on June 29, 2006 that he had completed his last day on the job; Robert Kimmitt served as acting secretary until Paulson was sworn in.
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in New York City. It offers services in investment management, securities, asset management, prime brokerage, and securities underwriting. It also provides investment banking to institutional investors.
Joshua Brewster Bolten is an American lawyer and politician. Bolten served as the White House Chief of Staff to U.S. President George W. Bush, replacing Andrew Card on April 14, 2006. Since 2017, he has been president and CEO of the Business Roundtable.
Robert Bruce Zoellick is an American public official and lawyer who was the eleventh president of the World Bank, a position he held from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2012. He was previously a managing director of Goldman Sachs, United States Deputy Secretary of State and U.S. Trade Representative, from February 7, 2001 until February 22, 2005. Zoellick has been a senior fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs since ending his term with the World Bank. He is currently a Senior Counselor at Brunswick Group.
Dina Powell McCormick is an American financial executive, philanthropist and political advisor, best known for having been the United States Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy to President Donald Trump.
Henry Merritt "Hank" Paulson Jr. is an American banker who served as the 74th United States Secretary of the Treasury from 2006 to 2009. Prior to his role in the Department of the Treasury, Paulson was the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Goldman Sachs.
R. Nicholas Burns is a university professor, columnist, lecturer and former American diplomat. He is currently Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a member of the Board of Directors of the school's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. At the Harvard Kennedy School, he is director of The Future of Diplomacy Project and Faculty Chair for the programs on the Middle East and India and South Asia. He is Director of the Aspen Strategy Group, senior counselor at The Cohen Group and serves on the Board of Directors of Entegris, Inc. He writes a bi-weekly column on foreign affairs for The Boston Globe and is a senior foreign affairs columnist for GlobalPost. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Council, the Council on Foreign Relations, Special Olympics, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, American Media Abroad, the Gennadius Library and the Richard Lounsbery Foundation. Burns was in 2020 a Fulbright scholar at Queen Mary University of London and contributor to the New Statesman.
The School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University (SIPA) is the international affairs and public policy school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university located in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, New York City.
David Harold McCormick is an American business executive. He is the CEO and a member of the Management Committee at Bridgewater Associates, a global macro investment firm with over $160 billion in assets under management. He was formerly Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs.
Robert King "Bob" Steel is an American businessman, financier and government official who has served as Deputy Mayor for Economic Development in the administration of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Under Secretary for Domestic Finance of the United States Treasury, chief executive officer of Wachovia Corporation and vice chairman of Goldman Sachs. He has also served as chairman of the board of trustees at Duke University and the Aspen Institute. In May 2014, he was tapped to succeed Joseph R. Perella as chief executive officer of Perella Weinberg Partners, a private investment banking and asset management firm.
There are two types of Council on Foreign Relations membership: life, and term membership, which lasts for five years and is available to those between the ages of 30 and 36 at the time of their application. Only U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have applied for U.S. citizenship are eligible. A candidate for life membership must be nominated in writing by one Council member and seconded by a minimum of three others.
John Francis William Rogers is an American businessman, serving as Executive Vice President, Chief of Staff and Secretary to the Board of Goldman Sachs.
The Energy Future Coalition is a nonpartisan public policy initiative that seeks to speed the transition to a new energy economy. Combining expertise and advocacy, the Coalition brings together business, labor, and environmental groups to identify new directions in energy policy with broad political support.
George Pratt Shultz is an American economist, politician, and businessman. He served in various positions under three different Republican presidents and is one of only two people to have held four different Cabinet posts. Shultz played a major role in shaping the foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration. From 1974 to 1982, he was an executive of Bechtel Group, an engineering and services company. In the 2010s, Shultz was a prominent figure in the scandal of the biotech firm Theranos, continuing to support it as a board member in the face of mounting evidence of fraud.
Robert D. "Bob" Hormats is Vice Chairman of Kissinger Associates. Immediately prior he served as Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment from 2009 to 2013. Hormats was formerly Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs (International), which he joined in 1982. He served as Senior Deputy Assistant Secretary, from 1977 to 1979, and Assistant Secretary of State, from 1981 to 1982, at the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. He was Ambassador and Deputy U.S. Trade Representative from 1979 to 1981. He served as a senior staff member for International Economic Affairs on the United States National Security Council from 1969 to 1977, where he was senior economic adviser to Henry Kissinger, General Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski. He helped to manage the Nixon administration's opening of diplomatic relations with China's communist government. He was a recipient of the French Legion of Honor in 1982 and the Arthur S. Flemming Award in 1974.
Abdourahmane Cissé is an Ivoirian engineer and economist. He presently serves as the Petroleum, Energy and Renewable Energies Minister of Ivory Coast under Prime Minister Hamed Bakayoko. He was previously Budget Minister of Ivory Coast under Prime Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan.
The Foreign Affairs Policy Board is an advisory board that provides independent advice and opinion to the Secretary of State, the Deputy Secretary of State, and the Director of Policy Planning on matters concerning U.S. foreign policy. The Board reviews and assesses global threats and opportunities, trends that implicate core national security interests, tools and capacities of the civilian foreign affairs agencies, and priorities and strategic frameworks for U.S. foreign policy. The Board meets in a plenary session several times a year at the U.S. Department of State in the Harry S. Truman Building.
