Leadership, Composition, and Appointments
The Council was led by Dr. C. Fred Bergsten, then the Director of the Institute for International Economics (now the Peterson Institute). Chairman Bergsten was elected by nongovernmental Council members at the first meeting. The Council was composed of 12 members who were appointed through a well-crafted process dictated by statute that provided for quadrapartite and bipartisan representation. Specifically, there were three members from the business community, three from organized labor, three from federal or state government, and three from academia and public interest. Four members were appointed by the President, four by the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Minority Leader acting jointly, and four by the Majority and Minority leaders of the U.S. Senate acting jointly.
Both Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton made appointments. The appointments process for the Council was unusual, in providing for equal weight to representatives from business and labor.
Over its life, the members of the Council included:
- Rand Araskog (ITT Corporation)
- John J. Barry (IBEW)
- Donald V. Fites (Caterpillar, Inc.)
- Barbara Hackman Franklin
- Bill Graves
- John J. Murphy (Dresser Industries)
- Robert E. Nelson (Nelson Communications)
- Edward Regan
- Claudine Schneider (former Member of Congress from Rhode Island)
- Bruce Scott (Harvard Business School)
- Albert Shanker
- Alexander B. Trowbridge
- Laura D. Tyson
- Edward Vetter (Vetter and Associates)
- Lynn R. Williams
Read more about this topic: Competitiveness Policy Council
Famous quotes containing the word appointments:
“All appointments hurt. Five friends are made cold or hostile for every appointment; no new friends are made. All patronage is perilous to men of real ability or merit. It aids only those who lack other claims to public support.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)