Business Roundtable
The Business Roundtable is an United States association of chief executive officers of leading corporations working to shape public policy in their interest. These CEO members lead companies with more than 15 million employees and more than $7 trillion in annual revenue.[1]
In 2010, the Washington Post characterized the group as President Barack Obama's "closest ally in the business community."[2]
On August 19, 2019, the group updated its decades-old definition of the purpose of a corporation, doing away with its bedrock principle that shareholder interests must be placed above all else. The statement, signed by nearly 200 chief executive officers from major U.S. corporations, makes a "fundamental commitment to all of our stakeholders," including customers, employees, suppliers and local communities.[3] This seems to dovetail with the World Economic Forum and its planned 2021 corporate coup d'etat the The Great Reset.
History
The Business Roundtable was founded in 1972 by John Harper, CEO of the Alcoa Group, and Fred Borch, CEO of General Electric, who were concerned about growing public hostility to large corporations and the development of federal labor regulations and on unions in an increasingly competitive international market.
Mission
The aim of the forum is based on the conviction that the economic sector should play an active and effective role in the formation of public order.
The forum is working for deregulation and reduction of government intervention through laws, except where it is in their interest, for reduced corporate taxes and for more voluntary agreements for industry. The Business Roundtable also pushed the Multilateral Agreement on Investments (MAI) and supported the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and lobbyed for example for British Petroleum, Coca-Cola, Deutsche Bank, ExxonMobil, General Motors, Monsanto, Nike, Procter & Gamble and Shell. In 2007, the BRT was a co-initiator of the Aspen principles.
The organization's current focus is on taking control over policy on corporate governance, education and the workforce, energy and the environment, health and retirement, immigration, infrastructure, international engagement, regulation, tax and fiscal policy, as well their ideas on technology, the Internet and innovation.
Activities
The Business Roundtable played a key role in defeating an anti-trust bill in 1975 and a Ralph Nader plan for a consumer protection agency in 1977. It also helped dilute the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act. But the Roundtable's most significant victory was in blocking labor law reform that sought to strengthen labor law to make it more difficult for companies to intimidate workers who wanted to form unions.
In fiscal policy, the Roundtable was responsible for broadening the 1985 tax cuts signed into law by Ronald Reagan, lobbying successfully for sharp reductions in corporate taxes. In trade policy, it argued for opening foreign markets to American trade and investment. The Omnibus Trade Act of 1988 reflected the thinking of the Business Roundtable. In 1990, the Roundtable urged George HW Bush to initiate a free trade agreement with Mexico. In 1993, the Roundtable lobbied for NAFTA and against any strong side agreements on labor and the environment. It provided the money and leadership for the main pro-NAFTA lobby.
The Roundtable also successfully opposed changes in corporate governance that would have made boards of directors and CEOs more accountable to stockholders.
In 1986, the Roundtable convinced the Securities and Exchange Commission to forgo new rules on merger and acquisitions, and in 1993 convinced President Clinton to water down his plan to impose penalties on excessive executive salaries.
The Roundtable's Health, Welfare, and Retirement Income Task Force, chaired by Prudential Insurance CEO Robert C. Winters, cheered President George HW Bush's 1991 health plan, which consisted mainly of subsidies to the health care industry. The nation's health care system works well for the majority of Americans, the Roundtable announced in a June 1991 statement. "We believe the solutions lie not in tearing down the present system, but in building upon it."
The Business Roundtable also acts as a major lobby that aims to extend or maintain administrators' rights/power in large companies. For example, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission adopted the so-called "shareholders’ access to proxy" rule, which aimed to empower shareholders in the proposition and nomination of administrators of big corporations. The Business Roundtable was strongly against that rule, as its president John Castellani reported to the Washington Post about removing this rule: "this is our highest priority [...] Literally all of our members have called about this".[4] And they got the upper hand: the SEC rule was finally dropped after intense lobbying and lawsuits.
It is not clear if the members are there in a semi-personal capacity or on behalf of the company, presumably the latter.[5]
Related Quotation
| Page | Quote | Author | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| US/Chamber of Commerce | “The chamber of commerce is really one of the most powerful lobbies in this country. It’s so powerful you almost never read about it. It’s one of those deep presences that rarely rise to the level of being written about in history.” | Peter Dale Scott | 2 December 2014 |
Known members
46 of the 391 of the members already have pages here:
| Member | Description |
|---|---|
| AT&T | The world's largest telecommunications company and the largest provider of mobile telephone services in the USA |
| Accenture | multinational corporation that is heavily involved in privatization and public-private partnerships in sectors such as schools. |
| Amazon | A monopoly/cartel online retailer with deep state connections. |
| Apple | A tech company, in a corrupt duopoly with Microsoft, its effective social engineering of children during the 2010s and 2000s and its adaption of youth culture made it the most valuable company in the world. PRISM-member. Throws activists or anyone not a WEF-member of their platform in geopolitical dilemmas. Fashion industry and wage slavery promoter. |
| BP | Multinational oil company implicated in the 1953 Iran Coup. |
| Ajay Banga | Indian-US business with a lot of connections, especially to processed food. As Mastercard executive interested in a cashless society. |
| Bank of America | Second biggest bank in the US |
| Baxter International | A multi-billion dollar transnational corporation which is of interest as regards emerging diseases and vaccines. |
| Marc Benioff | Both a WEF GLT and a WEF YGL, US internet billionaire deep state functionary, bought Time Magazine |
| Jeff Bezos | World's richest man. Founded Amazon, grandson of a DARPA co-founder |
| BlackRock | Who owns a piece of everything? They do! |
| Albert Bourla | Chairman and chief executive officer of Pfizer who termed the COVID jabs "weapons" |
| Chevron | |
| Citigroup | US bank, promoting "going cashless" |
| ConocoPhillips | American multinational oil and gas corporation |
| Tim Cook | |
| Michael Dell | Computer billionaire businessman, WEF AGM regular, WEF GLT 1993 |
| Jamie Dimon | "The Most Admired Banker In The World", close to Epstein. Global Leaders for Tomorrow/1996. Since 2005 head of JPMorgan Chase |
| Dow Chemical | Big chemical corporation and producer of Agent Orange during the Vietnam war. Also known for the Bhopal explosion. |
| ExxonMobil | |
| Ford Motor Company | American multinational automobile manufacturer |
| Alex Gorsky | The CEO of Johnson & Johnson (2012 to 2021) |
| Evan Greenberg | US businessman, GLT 1998, 2nd generation multi-Bilderberger |
| Maurice Greenberg | US deep state operative |
| Intel | Biggest US Tech company, its owner warned its main products would become a casus belli for WW3. |
| Johnson & Johnson | The Vice President, Adrian Thomas was a "player" in Event 201. In March 2020 Johnson & Johnson entered into a $456 million partnership with the US government for a COVID-19 vaccine. |
| Kaiser Permanente | UK plans to convert the NHS into the American Kaiser Permanente integrated 'managed care' model<a href="#cite_note-1">[1]</a> |
| Bernard Looney | Became CEO of BP in February 2020. Attended the 2022 Bilderberg |
| Mastercard | |
| McKinsey & Company | corporate hit-men to loot the economy |
| Morgan Stanley | |
| Northrop Grumman | |
| Oracle | Tech company with significant connections to the national security industry |
| PayPal | Online payment website |
| Pfizer | A multinational big pharma company. Made a killing during COVID |
| Charles Prince | One of the main culprits for the 2008 economic crisis |
| Procter & Gamble | Huge multi-billion dollar multinational corporation; specialising in consumer goods. |
| PwC | |
| Raytheon | Military-industrial complex. |
| Fredrick Smith | Knights of Malta, CFR ... |
| Special access program | |
| Julie Sweet | CEO of Accenture and Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum. Married to CIA operative. |
| Vanguard | |
| Visa | |
| Walmart | |
| Wood Mackenzie | A global energy, chemicals, renewables, metals and mining research and consultancy group |
References
- ↑ https://www.businessroundtable.org/about-us
- ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/22/AR2010062205279.html
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/19/business/business-roundtable-ceos-corporations.html
- ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/13/AR2010051305288.html
- ↑ https://www.businessroundtable.org/about-us/members
