02 June, 2017

from RT Website



FILE PHOTO: Protesters take part in a demonstration against the Bilderberg conference in Telfs, Austria. © Christian Bruna / AFP


Many of the world's most powerful people are gathering for the annual meeting of the mysterious Bilderberg Group this week.

 

Russia, the Trump administration and 'The war on information' are among key topics up for discussion.

 


This year's gathering takes place in Chantilly, Virginia, less than 30 miles from the White House, and goings on in the Oval Office are top of the agenda for the 131 people who've confirmed they're attending.

Many top White House figures will be at the four-day event, including the,

  • Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross

  • National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster

  • Assistant to the President Christopher Liddell

Other topics up for discussion include,

  • 'Russia in the international order'

  • China

  • 'The Trans-Atlantic defence alliance: bullets, bytes and bucks'

  • 'The war on information'

  • 'Direction of the EU'

  • 'Why is populism growing?'

 

 

This year's event marks the 65th meeting of the infamously-secretive group which has met every year since 1954.

...were the group's founders.

The group says the conference is,

"designed to foster dialogue between Europe and North America."

Each year it's attended by people from the fields of politics, industry, finance, media and academia. About two thirds of the participants come from Europe and the rest from North America.

As well of some of Trump's top brass, other attendees this year include,

  • Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg

  • Republican senators Tom Cotton and Lindsey Graham

  • Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai

Editors, and chief commentators, from several world famous publications including,

  • Bloomberg

  • The Economist

  • The Financial Times

  • The Wall Street Journal

  • Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera

  • the London Evening Standard,

...will also be in attendance.

Notorious for the lack of information about what happens during the discussions, meetings are closed to the public and to reporting journalists.

 

All of the the meetings are held under the Chatham House Rule, which means that participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speakers can be revealed.

 

Also, no minutes are taken and no report is written.

 

 


Nobody can buy their way into the meetings, rather they have to be invited. The invited guests are not allowed to bring their partners and the group reportedly never visits the same hotel twice.

Among the most famous past attendees are,

...who both attended before they rose to power.





 



 

 

 2017 Bilderberg Meeting Participant List
June 01, 2017
from PublicIntelligence Website

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2017 Bilderberg Meeting
Chantilly VA, USA 1-4 June
 

CHAIRMAN


Castries, Henri de (FRA), Former Chairman and CEO, AXA; President of Institut Montaigne



 PARTICIPANTS

Achleitner, Paul M. (DEU), Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Deutsche Bank AG

Adonis, Andrew (GBR), Chair, National Infrastructure Commission

Agius, Marcus (GBR), Chairman, PA Consulting Group

Akyol, Mustafa (TUR), Senior Visiting Fellow, Freedom Project at Wellesley College

Alstadheim, Kjetil B. (NOR), Political Editor, Dagens Næringsliv

Altman, Roger C. (USA), Founder and Senior Chairman, Evercore

Arnaut, José Luis (PRT), Managing Partner, CMS Rui Pena & Arnaut

Barroso, José M. Durão (PRT), Chairman, Goldman Sachs International

Bäte, Oliver (DEU), CEO, Allianz SE

Baumann, Werner (DEU), Chairman, Bayer AG

Baverez, Nicolas (FRA), Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

Benko, René (AUT), Founder and Chairman of the Advisory Board, SIGNA Holding GmbH

Berner, Anne-Catherine (FIN), Minister of Transport and Communications

Botín, Ana P. (ESP), Executive Chairman, Banco Santander

Brandtzæg, Svein Richard (NOR), President and CEO, Norsk Hydro ASA

Brennan, John O. (USA), Senior Advisor, Kissinger Associates Inc.

Bsirske, Frank (DEU), Chairman, United Services Union

Buberl, Thomas (FRA), CEO, AXA

Bunn, M. Elaine (USA), Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense

Burns, William J. (USA), President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Çakiroglu, Levent (TUR), CEO, Koç Holding A.S.

Çamlibel, Cansu (TUR), Washington DC Bureau Chief, Hürriyet Newspaper

Cebrián, Juan Luis (ESP), Executive Chairman, PRISA and El País

Clemet, Kristin (NOR), CEO, Civita

Cohen, David S. (USA), Former Deputy Director, CIA

Collison, Patrick (USA), CEO, Stripe

Cotton, Tom (USA), Senator

Cui, Tiankai (CHN), Ambassador to the US

Döpfner, Mathias (DEU), CEO, Axel Springer SE

Elkann, John (ITA), Chairman, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

Enders, Thomas (DEU), CEO, Airbus SE

Federspiel, Ulrik (DNK), Group Executive, Haldor Topsøe Holding A/S

Ferguson, Jr., Roger W. (USA), President and CEO, TIAA

Ferguson, Niall (USA), Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University

Gianotti, Fabiola (ITA), Director General, CERN

Gozi, Sandro (ITA), State Secretary for European Affairs

Graham, Lindsey (USA), Senator

Greenberg, Evan G. (USA), Chairman and CEO, Chubb Group

Griffin, Kenneth (USA), Founder and CEO, Citadel Investment Group, LLC

Gruber, Lilli (ITA), Editor-in-Chief and Anchor "Otto e mezzo", La7 TV

Guindos, Luis de (ESP), Minister of Economy, Industry and Competiveness

Haines, Avril D. (USA), Former Deputy National Security Advisor

Halberstadt, Victor (NLD), Professor of Economics, Leiden University

Hamers, Ralph (NLD), Chairman, ING Group

Hedegaard, Connie (DNK), Chair, KR Foundation

Hennis-Plasschaert, Jeanine (NLD), Minister of Defence, The Netherlands

Hobson, Mellody (USA), President, Ariel Investments LLC

Hoffman, Reid (USA), Co-Founder, LinkedIn and Partner, Greylock

Houghton, Nicholas (GBR), Former Chief of Defence

Ischinger, Wolfgang (INT), Chairman, Munich Security Conference

Jacobs, Kenneth M. (USA), Chairman and CEO, Lazard

Johnson, James A. (USA), Chairman, Johnson Capital Partners

Jordan, Jr., Vernon E. (USA), Senior Managing Director, Lazard Frères & Co. LLC

Karp, Alex (USA), CEO, Palantir Technologies

Kengeter, Carsten (DEU), CEO, Deutsche Börse AG

Kissinger, Henry A. (USA), Chairman, Kissinger Associates Inc.

Klatten, Susanne (DEU), Managing Director, SKion GmbH

Kleinfeld, Klaus (USA), Former Chairman and CEO, Arconic

Knot, Klaas H.W. (NLD), President, De Nederlandsche Bank

Koç, Ömer M. (TUR), Chairman, Koç Holding A.S.

Kotkin, Stephen (USA), Professor in History and International Affairs, Princeton University

Kravis, Henry R. (USA), Co-Chairman and Co-CEO, KKR

Kravis, Marie-Josée (USA), Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute

Kudelski, André (CHE), Chairman and CEO, Kudelski Group

Lagarde, Christine (INT), Managing Director, International Monetary Fund

Lenglet, François (FRA), Chief Economics Commentator, France 2

Leysen, Thomas (BEL), Chairman, KBC Group

Liddell, Christopher (USA), Assistant to the President and Director of Strategic Initiatives

Lööf, Annie (SWE), Party Leader, Centre Party

Mathews, Jessica T. (USA), Distinguished Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

McAuliffe, Terence (USA), Governor of Virginia

McKay, David I. (CAN), President and CEO, Royal Bank of Canada

McMaster, H.R. (USA), National Security Advisor

Mexia, António Luís Guerra Nunes (PRT), President, Eurelectric and CEO, EDP Energias de Portugal

Micklethwait, John (INT), Editor-in-Chief, Bloomberg LP

Minton Beddoes, Zanny (INT), Editor-in-Chief, The Economist

Molinari, Maurizio (ITA), Editor-in-Chief, La Stampa

Monaco, Lisa (USA), Former Homeland Security Officer

Morneau, Bill (CAN), Minister of Finance

Mundie, Craig J. (USA), President, Mundie & Associates

Murtagh, Gene M. (IRL), CEO, Kingspan Group plc

Netherlands, H.M. the King of the (NLD)

Noonan, Peggy (USA), Author and Columnist, The Wall Street Journal

O'Leary, Michael (IRL), CEO, Ryanair D.A.C.

Osborne, George (GBR), Editor, London Evening Standard

Papahelas, Alexis (GRC), Executive Editor, Kathimerini Newspaper

Papalexopoulos, Dimitri (GRC), CEO, Titan Cement Co.

Petraeus, David H. (USA), Chairman, KKR Global Institute

Pind, Søren (DNK), Minister for Higher Education and Science

Puga, Benoît (FRA), Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honor and Chancellor of the National Order of Merit

Rachman, Gideon (GBR), Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator, The Financial Times

Reisman, Heather M. (CAN), Chair and CEO, Indigo Books & Music Inc.

Rivera Díaz, Albert (ESP), President, Ciudadanos Party

Rosén, Johanna (SWE), Professor in Materials Physics, Linköping University

Ross, Wilbur L. (USA), Secretary of Commerce

Rubenstein, David M. (USA), Co-Founder and Co-CEO, The Carlyle Group

Rubin, Robert E. (USA), Co-Chair, Council on Foreign Relations and Former Treasury Secretary

Ruoff, Susanne (CHE), CEO, Swiss Post

Rutten, Gwendolyn (BEL), Chair, Open VLD

Sabia, Michael (CAN), CEO, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec

Sawers, John (GBR), Chairman and Partner, Macro Advisory Partners

Schadlow, Nadia (USA), Deputy Assistant to the President, National Security Council

Schmidt, Eric E. (USA), Executive Chairman, Alphabet Inc.

Schneider-Ammann, Johann N. (CHE), Federal Councillor, Swiss Confederation

Scholten, Rudolf (AUT), President, Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue

Severgnini, Beppe (ITA), Editor-in-Chief, 7-Corriere della Sera

Sikorski, Radoslaw (POL), Senior Fellow, Harvard University

Slat, Boyan (NLD), CEO and Founder, The Ocean Cleanup

Spahn, Jens (DEU), Parliamentary State Secretary and Federal Ministry of Finance

Stephenson, Randall L. (USA), Chairman and CEO, AT&T

Stern, Andrew (USA), President Emeritus, SEIU and Senior Fellow, Economic Security Project

Stoltenberg, Jens (INT), Secretary General, NATO

Summers, Lawrence H. (USA), Charles W. Eliot University Professor, Harvard University

Tertrais, Bruno (FRA), Deputy Director, Fondation pour la recherche stratégique

Thiel, Peter (USA), President, Thiel Capital

Topsøe, Jakob Haldor (DNK), Chairman, Haldor Topsøe Holding A/S

Ülgen, Sinan (TUR), Founding and Partner, Istanbul Economics

Vance, J.D. (USA), Author and Partner, Mithril

Wahlroos, Björn (FIN), Chairman, Sampo Group, Nordea Bank, UPM-Kymmene Corporation

Wallenberg, Marcus (SWE), Chairman, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB

Walter, Amy (USA), Editor, The Cook Political Report

Weston, Galen G. (CAN), CEO and Executive Chairman, Loblaw Companies Ltd and George Weston Companies

White, Sharon (GBR), Chief Executive, Ofcom

Wieseltier, Leon (USA), Isaiah Berlin Senior Fellow in Culture and Policy, The Brookings Institution

Wolf, Martin H. (INT), Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times

Wolfensohn, James D. (USA), Chairman and CEO, Wolfensohn & Company

Wunsch, Pierre (BEL), Vice-Governor, National Bank of Belgium

Zeiler, Gerhard (AUT), President, Turner International

Zients, Jeffrey D. (USA), Former Director, National Economic Council

Zoellick, Robert B. (USA), Non-Executive Chairman, AllianceBernstein L.P.

CHANTILLY, 31 MAY 2017

The 65th Bilderberg Meeting will take place from 1-4 June 2017 in Chantilly, Virginia, USA.

 

As of today, 131 participants from 21 countries have confirmed their attendance. As ever, a diverse group of political leaders and experts from industry, finance, academia and the media has been invited.

 

The list of participants is available here.

The key topics for discussion this year include:

  • The Trump Administration: A progress report

  • Trans-Atlantic relations: options and scenarios

  • The Trans-Atlantic defence alliance: bullets, bytes and bucks

  • The direction of the EU

  • Can globalization be slowed down?

  • Jobs, income and unrealized expectations

  • The war on information

  • Why is populism growing?

  • Russia in the international order

  • The Near East

  • Nuclear proliferation

  • China

  • Current events

Founded in 1954, the Bilderberg Meeting is an annual conference designed to foster dialogue between Europe and North America.

 

Every year, between 120-140 political leaders and experts from industry, finance, academia and the media are invited to take part in the conference.

  • About two thirds of the participants come from Europe and the rest from North America

     

  • Approximately a quarter from politics and government and the rest from other fields

The conference is a forum for informal discussions about major issues facing the world.

 

The meetings are held under the Chatham House Rule, which states that participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s) nor any other participant may be revealed.

Thanks to the private nature of the meeting, the participants are not bound by the conventions of their office or by pre-agreed positions.

 

As such, they can take time to listen, reflect and gather insights.

 

There is no desired outcome, no minutes are taken and no report is written. Furthermore, no resolutions are proposed, no votes are taken, and no policy statements are issued.