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Peter George Peterson

(Redirected from Peter Peterson)

This article is about the Pete Peterson who was a U.S. government official during the Nixon administration; there is also a Pete Peterson who was a former Florida Congressman and ambassador to Vietnam.


Peter George Peterson (born June 5, 1926) is a 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.

Peterson graduated from Northwestern University in 1947, and received his MBA in 1951 from the University of Chicago.

He was Chairman and CEO of Bell and Howell Corporation from 1963 to 1971.

In 1971, Peter Peterson was named Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs by U.S. President Richard Nixon.

In 1972, he was named 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).

Peterson co-founded the Blackstone Group in 1985.


In 1992 he 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." [1]

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 is currently Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, and founding Chairman of the Institute for International Economics (Washington, DC).

Peterson also serves as Co-Chair of The Conference Board Commission on Public Trust and Private Enterprises (Co-Chaired by John Snow. He was also Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2000 to 2004.


He is married to Joan Ganz Cooney.

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Last updated: 05-21-2005 19:14:18