The Conference Board

For the Conference Board's Canadian counterpart, see Conference Board of Canada.

The Conference Board, Inc. is a non-profit, non-partisan business membership and research group. It has approximately 12,000 executives in its network, from 1200 corporations in 60 countries. It holds conferences, convenes executives, conducts economic and business management research, and is seen as an important speaking venue.^[1] It holds 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States.

History

The organization was founded in 1916 as the National Industrial Conference Board.

It grew from a 1915 meeting at the Yama Farms Inn in New York consisting of presidents of 12 major corporations and six of the foremost industry associations. The gathering included Frederick P. Fish, Frank A. Vanderlip and Magnus W. Alexander, who would become the organization’s chairman and executive secretary. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss

the causes of the increasing strife between employers and their employees and the effect of the rapidly multiplying amount of restrictive labor and social legislation on the conduct of business . . . in order that a proper course of future action might be determined upon, alike beneficial to employers and employees and subservient to the welfare of the nation^[2]

Overview

The Conference Board's current mission states:

The Conference Board's mission is unique: To provide the world's leading organizations with the practical knowledge they need to improve their performance and better serve society.

The Conference Board convenes business executives from all kinds of private and public businesses to act as a research and lobby group for their interests. It also promotes its views of "best practice" in industry. Its four principal subject areas are "Economies, Markets & Value Creation"; "Human Capital"; "Corporate Leadership" and "High-Performing Organizations". Jon Spector is the current Chief Executive Officer. On April 1, 2008, Bart van Ark was appointed as the first non-U.S. Chief Economist. The Conference Board's board of trustees includes prominent chief executives who lead global corporations. About half of these business leaders are based outside the U.S. The Conference Board has its main office on Third Avenue, New York City and other offices in Brussels, Beijing, Hong Kong, and India. A similar but separate organization exists in Canada, the Conference Board of Canada. The Conference Board also sponsors and manages more than 100 worldwide management councils.

Products and services

The organization produces Leading Economic Indicators for the United States, the United Kingdom, the Euro Area, France, Germany, Spain, Japan, Korea, China, Mexico and Australia. It also produces the Consumer Confidence Index, the CEO Confidence Index, the Help Wanted Online Data Series, and other major indicators that have an impact on both business and the financial markets. It also produces a definitive source of information about worldwide institutional investment trends^[3] and is a leading source of knowledge about corporate governance, corporate performance, business ethics, corporate security, human resources management and global corporate citizenship.[1] The Conference Board also publishes a magazine of ideas and opinion, which was called Across the Board from 1976 to 2006 and The Conference Board Review[2] henceforth.

In 2003, The Conference Board's Commission on Public Trust and Private Enterprise, which included 12 prominent leaders from business and other sectors of society,issued a wide-ranging series of recommendations[3] to help restore public trust in companies, their leaders and the capital markets. Many of these recommendations have been adopted. In 2009, The Conference Board convened a task force on executive compensation.

The Conference Board sponsors and manages the Ron Brown Award, the only Presidential Award honoring outstanding corporate citizenship, in White House ceremonies.

See also

• US corporate law

Notes

1. ^ All-Star Executives at Five-Star Events
2. ^ Joseph L. Naar, An Historical Celebration of The Conference Board’s 75th Anniversary (New York: The Conference Board, Inc., 1991), 13-14. http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/footnote.html
3. ^ Press Release from The Conference Board http://tcb.org/press/pressdetail.cfm?pressid=3755

External links

• The Conference Board's Board of Trustees
• The Conference Board, Inc. website
• The Conference Board of Canada website
• Works by The Conference Board at Project Gutenberg