The Business Council is an organization of business leaders in the United States.
It was founded by Secretary of Commerce Daniel C. Roper and investment banker Sidney Weinberg as the Business Advisory Council for the United States Department of Commerce in 1933, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It formed the Industrial Advisory Board for the National Recovery Administration during the Great Depression. It also established committees to discuss the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Banking Act of 1935 and the Social Security Act.
It was renamed The Business Council as an organization independent from the Department of Commerce in 1961, under President John F. Kennedy.
Membership is limited to 200 active members, and the organization is strictly non-partisan. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C..
1933: Gerard Swope, General Electric.
1934: S. Clay Williams, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.
1934-35: Henry P. Kendall, Kendall Company.
1936: George H. Mead, Mead Corporation.
1937-39: W. Averell Harriman, Brown Bros. & Co..
1940-41: William L. Batt, War Production Board.
1942-43: R. R. Deupree, Procter & Gamble.
1944-45: Thomas B. McCabe, Scott Paper Company.
1946: George M. Humphrey, National Steel Corporation.
1947-48: John L. Collyer, Goodrich Corporation.
1949-50: James S. Knowlson, Stewart-Warner.
1951-52: Robert T. Stevens, J.P. Stevens and Company.
1953: John D. Biggers, Libbey–Owens–Ford.
1954-55: Harold Boeschenstein, Owens Corning.
1956-57: Eugene Holman, Jersey Standard.
1958-59: Stephen Bechtel, Jr., Bechtel.
1960-61: Ralph J. Cordiner, General Electric.
1961-62: Roger Blough, U.S. Steel.
1963-64: F. R. Kappel, AT&T.
1965-66: W.B. Murphy, Campbell Soup Company.
1967-68: Albert L. Nickerson, Mobil Oil.
1969-70: Fred J. Borch, General Electric.
1971-72: William M. Batten, J. C. Penney.
1973-74: David Packard, Hewlett-Packard.
1975-76: Edmund W. Littlefield, General Electric.
1977-78: John D. deButts, AT&T.
1979-80: Reginald H. Jones, General Electric.
1981-82: Walter B. Wriston, Citicorp.
1983-84: Clifton C. Garvin, Jr., Exxon.
1985-86: Ruben F. Mettler, TRW Inc..
1987-88: Stephen Bechtel, Jr., Betchel.
1989-90: Roger B. Smith, General Motors Corporation.
1991-92: John F. Welch, Jr., General Electric.
1993-94: Robert E. Allen, AT&T.
1995-96: Edgar S. Woolard, Jr., DuPont.
1997-98: Larry Bossidy, AlliedSignal.
1999-00: Ralph S. Larsen, Johnson & Johnson.
2001-02: William T. Esrey, Sprint Corporation.
2003-04: Charles O. Holliday, Jr., Bank of America.
2005-06: Jeffrey R. Immelt, General Electric.
2007-08: W. James McNerney, Jr., Boeing.
2009-10: James W. Owens, Caterpillar Inc..
2011-12: James Dimon, JPMorgan Chase & Co..
2013-14: Andrew N. Liveris, The Dow Chemical Company.
2015-16: Jeffrey P. Bezos, Amazon.com.
Henry R. Kravis, Co-Chairman & Co-CEO, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Ajay Banga, President and CEO, MasterCard
Steven A. Kandarian, Chairman, President & CEO, MetLife, Inc.
Ellen J. Kullman, Retired Chair of the Board & CEO, DuPont
David M. Rubenstein, Co-Founder and Managing Director, The Carlyle Group
Stephen F. Angel, Chairman, President & CEO, Praxair, Inc.
James Dimon, Chairman & CEO, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Kenneth Frazier, Chairman, President & CEO, Merck & Co., Inc.
Greg C. Garland, Chairman & CEO, Phillips 66
Alex Gorsky, Chairman & CEO, Johnson & Johnson
Hugh Grant, Chairman & CEO, Monsanto Company
Henry R. Kravis, Co-Chairman and Co-CEO, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Andrew N. Liveris, President, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, The Dow Chemical Company
James McNerney, Jr., Chairman, The Boeing Company
Patricia A. Woertz, Retired Chairman & CEO, Archer Daniels Midland Company
