Peter Peterson Biography

He is founding chairman of the Institute for International Economics, chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, and founding president of The Concord Coalition. Mr. Peterson was the co-chair of The Conference Board Commission on Public Trust and Private Enterprises (co-chaired by John Snow, former secretary of the treasury). He was also chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from (2000–04), chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers (1973–77), later chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers, Kuhn, Loeb Inc. (1977–84), and chairman and CEO of Bell and Howell Corporation (1963–71).

In 1971 President Richard Nixon named Mr. Peterson assistant to the president for international economic affairs. He was named secretary of commerce in 1972 and assumed the chairmanship of the National Commission on Productivity and was appointed US chairman of the US-Soviet Commercial Commission. Mr. Peterson was chairman of the US Council of the International Chamber of Commerce in 1978–79. President Ford appointed him chairman of the Quadrennial Commission on Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Salaries in 1976, and in 1994 President Clinton named him as a member of the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform.

Mr. Peterson is the author of several books, including Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It; Gray Dawn: How the Coming Age Wave Will Transform America—and the World; Will America Grow Up Before It Grows Old?; and Facing Up: How to Rescue the Economy from Crushing Debt and Restore the American Dream. His Atlantic Monthly cover article, “The Morning After,” received the National Magazine Award for Best Public Interest Article of the Year in 1987. He has been awarded honorary degrees by Colgate University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Northwestern University, New School University, the University of Nebraska, the University of Rochester, and Southampton College of Long Island University. He is married to Joan Ganz Cooney, creator of Sesame Street.

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