Richard E. Cavanagh today announced that he is stepping aside as President and CEO of The Conference Board, the 90-year-old global research and business membership organization. He expects to serve until the end of this year pending the appointment of his successor.
Mr. Cavanagh, 59, was named head of The Conference Board in 1995. Before joining The Conference Board, he served for nine years as Executive Dean of Harvard University´s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Earlier, he was a consultant and partner at McKinsey & Company for 15 years, taking a two-year leave of absence in 1977-79 to serve in major positions in the White House Office of Management and Budget under President Jimmy Carter.
The Trustees of The Conference Board, chief executives of major companies who serve as the organization´s governing body, will undertake a search for candidates to replace Mr. Cavanagh. The search committee will be chaired by Douglas R. Conant, President and CEO of the Campbell Soup Company.
´A DECADE OF LEADERSHIP´
"During Dick Cavanagh´s decade of leadership, The Conference Board prospered, extended its global reach, and helped reshape corporate governance and business practices like workplace diversity," said Samuel DiPiazza, CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Chairman of The Conference Board´s Board of Trustees. "We are lucky to have had him."
"My time at The Conference Board has been blessed by a Board of Trustees willing to take risks and talented staff able to take risks," said Mr. Cavanagh. "This let us play a major role in shaping such important business values as corporate governance and workplace diversity."
Mr. Cavanagh expects to devote more time to non-profit activities and serving on corporate boards. He will continue as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the world´s leading educational assessment group that administers the SAT´s and other tests. And he will continue to serve as an independent director on public company boards, including BlackRock (mutual funds), Arch Chemicals and the Guardian Life Insurance Company.
A MAJOR FORCE IN ECONOMICS, GOVERNANCE AND DIVERSITY
During the last 11 years, The Conference Board has experienced significant growth and expanded its worldwide reputation as a leading economic and management research organization. The Conference Board is today a major force in the fields of corporate governance and workforce diversity.
In 2002 - amidst a rising wave of corporate scandals - Mr. Cavanagh created and convened the blue-ribbon Commission on Public Trust and Private Enterprise. Co-chaired by Peter G. Peterson, Chairman and co-founder of The Blackstone Group, and John W. Snow, now U.S. Treasury Secretary, the Commission included prominent leaders from business, academia and the not-for-profit sector. The Commission called for a wide range of reforms in corporate governance practices, including the expensing of stock options and the election of lead independent directors and non-executive chairmen. Many of the Commission´s recommendations, once controversial, have since been adopted by a majority of large companies in the U.S. Since then, The Conference Board´s Directors´ Institute has provided executive education for directors of a majority of the Fortune 500.
The Conference Board also established the Ron Brown Award for Corporate Leadership in 1997, the only White House award recognizing companies for extraordinary citizenship programs. And The Conference Board´s diversity program, begun 11 years ago, today includes six diversity councils with 250 chief diversity officers of major enterprises.
In 1995, The Conference Board was awarded stewardship of the U.S. Leading Economic Indicators by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Since then, The Conference Board has expanded these economic indicators beyond the U.S. to the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan, Korea, Spain, Mexico and Australia (representing over 69 percent of the world´s GDP).
INTERNATIONAL REACH
During the last decade, rising numbers of the organization´s Trustees head companies based outside the United States. Currently, nearly half of the organization´s 31 Trustees are the CEOs of firms based outside the United States, representing 15 nationalities, up from 4 non-North American Trustees in 1994. Two of The Conference Board´s most recent chairmen were CEOs from outside the U.S. - Lord Marshall of Knightsbridge, then CEO of British Airways, and Niall FitzGerald, then Chairman of Unilever.
The Conference Board´s "global counselors" include 100 business leaders, 76 of them representing companies headquartered outside the U.S. Another advisory group, which serves as counsel to The Conference Board´s expanding economics research program, includes 30 business leaders. This group is chaired by Paul Volcker, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve System, and Niall FitzGerald, now Chairman, Reuters Group.
ABOUT THE CONFERENCE BOARD
Not-for-profit and non-partisan, The Conference Board is one of the world´s leading research and business membership organizations. It produces the widely-watched Consumer Confidence Index, Help-Wanted Advertising Index, and Leading Economic Indicators for the U.S. and eight other major nations. The Conference Board is also noted for its economic forecasts and CEO surveys, and for its studies on global productivity, corporate governance, business ethics, corporate citizenship, workplace diversity and mature workers. Its conference and council programs attract more than 18,000 senior executives each year. www.conference-board.org.
The Conference Board Fact Sheet
FY1995-FY2006
Today, The Conference Board´s 2,000 corporate members worldwide including 19 of the largest 20 U.S. firms, 80 percent of the Fortune 100, and all of Fortune´s "world´s most admired companies.
"The Conference Board´s annual budget increased from $29 million in fiscal 1995 to over $50 million today. In 2003, The Conference Board launched the Directors´ Institute, which has now provided governance education for directors of a majority of Fortune 500 companies.
In fiscal 2005, The Conference Board set 10 all-time performance records, ranging from new highs in corporate membership subscriptions and visits to its website to employee productivity and citations of The Conference Board´s work in worldwide media.
In 2005, The Conference Board created a new barometer to measure the number of jobs being offered in the U.S. via the Internet. This online measure is a companion to The Conference Board´s Help-Wanted Advertising Index, a monthly measure of job advertising printed in major newspapers.
The Conference Board´s Chief Economist, Gail Fosler, was named by The Wall Street Journal one of two most accurate forecasters of inflation in 2005. Earlier, she was twice named America´s best economic forecaster by the Journal. Two other economists, Victor Zarnowitz and Kenneth Goldstein, have also won major economic forecasting awards.
Further information: Frank Tortorici (212) 339-0231