The Peter G. Peterson Foundation

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation was established in 2008 by Peter G. Peterson, a co-founder of the Blackstone Group. With an endowment of $1 billion, the Peterson Foundation addresses fiscal sustainability issues related to federal deficits, entitlement programs and tax policies.

History

After Blackstone’s IPO in 2007, Peterson left with a $1.9 billion profit, about half of which he dedicated to the Peterson Foundation.Peterson recruited David Walker, then Comptroller General of the United States and head of the Government Accountability Office, as President and CEO of the Foundation.

Leadership

In addition to founder Pete Peterson and CEO and President David Walker, PGPF is led by Vice President C. Eugene Steuerle, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, and Director of Public Affairs Elizabeth Wilner, a former political director of NBC News.

Advertising Campaign

In February, PGPF launched a $1 million-plus advertising campaign in advance of President Obama's Fiscal Responsibility Summit on February 23, 2009.

I.O.U.S.A.

In 2008, the Peterson Foundation distributed I.O.U.S.A., a documentary film directed by Patrick Creadon. The film debuted at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and will be released on DVD on April 7, 2009.

Partners and Affiliates

PGPF partnered with mtvU in December 2008 to create Indebted, a new campaign for college students that raises awareness about the dangers of personal and government financial irresponsibility and promotes action to help stop the fiscal crisis in the United States.
Along with The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Committee For a Responsible Federal Budget, the Peterson Foundation embarked in January on a project to modernize the outdated Congressional budget process

Grantees

To date, the Peterson Foundation has awarded nearly $11 million in grants. Recent grant recipients include the Center for the Study of the Presidency, the Institute for Advanced Policy Solutions at Emory University, the Institute of Medicine, and the Common Good Institute.

Foundation Founder

Peter George Peterson (born June 5, 1926) is an American businessman, investment banker, fiscal conservative, author, and politician whose most prominent political position was as United States Secretary of Commerce from February 29, 1972 to February 1, 1973. He was Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations until retiring on June 30, 2007, after being named chairman emeritus. He is the Senior Chairman of the private equity firm, the Blackstone Group. In 2008, he was ranked 149th on the "Forbes 400 Richest Americans" with a net worth of $2.8 Billion. In 2008, he established The Peter G. Peterson Foundation with a $1 billion endowment.

Biography

Peterson was born in Kearney, Nebraska, to Greek immigrant parents and is married to Joan Ganz Cooney. He reached draft age in June 1944 but avoided military service in World War II and in the Korean War. He received an undergraduate degree from Northwestern University, graduating in 1947, summa cum laude. He joined Market Facts, a Chicago-based market research firm, in 1948.In 1951, he received an MBA degree from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, before returning to Market Facts as an executive vice president.

He joined advertising agency McCann Erickson in 1953, again in Chicago, where he served as a director. He joined movie-equipment maker Bell and Howell Corporation in 1958 as Executive Vice President. He later succeeded Charles H. Percy as Chairman and CEO, positions he held from 1963 to 1971. He has been a director of a number of other corporations.

In 1969, Peterson was invited by philanthropist John D. Rockefeller 3rd, CFR Chairman John J. McCloy, and former Treasury Secretary Douglas Dillon to chair a Commission on Foundations and Private Philanthropy, which became known as the Peterson Commission. Among its recommendations adopted by the government were that foundations be required annually to disburse a minimum proportion of their funds.

In 1971, Peterson was named Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs by U.S. President Richard Nixon. In 1972, he became the Secretary of Commerce, a position he held for one year. At that time he also assumed the Chairmanship of President Nixon’s National Commission on Productivity and was appointed U.S. Chairman of the U.S.–Soviet Commercial Commission.

Peterson was Chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers (1973–1977) and Lehman Brothers, Kuhn, Loeb Inc. (1977–1984).

In 1985, Peter G Peterson co-founded the prominent private equity and investment management firm, the Blackstone Group, for which his current position is Senior Chairman.

In 1992, Peterson was one of the co-founders of the Concord Coalition, a bipartisan citizens' group that advocates reduction of the federal budget deficit. Following record deficits under President George W. Bush, Peterson commented in 2004: "I remain a Republican, but the Republicans have become a far more theological, faith-directed party, not troubling with evidence."

In February 1994, President Bill Clinton named Peterson as a member of the Bi-Partisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform co-chaired by Senators Bob Kerrey and John Danforth.

Peterson also serves as Co-Chair of The Conference Board Commission on Public Trust and Private Enterprises (Co-Chaired by John Snow).

Peterson has been Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations since 1985, when he took over from David Rockefeller. He also serves as Trustee of the Rockefeller family's Japan Society and the Museum of Modern Art, and was previously on the board of Rockefeller Center Properties, Inc..

He is founding Chairman of the Peterson Institute for International Economics (formerly the Institute for International Economics, renamed in his honour in 2006), and a Trustee of the Committee for Economic Development. He was also Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York between 2000 and 2004.

In 2006 Peterson was honored with the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution.