Promoted as providing “Trusted Insights for Business Worldwide”, The Conference Board is a well-respected authority in the business world. With its main offices based on Third Avenue in New York City, this non-profit global business organization also has offices in Hong Kong and Brussels. Functions of The Conference Board include holding conferences with high profile executives from all over the world, and conducting business management research relevant to the current global market. One of the reports compiled by The Conference Board is its Consumer Confidence Index, which is of great interest to stock market traders, bearing in mind that a healthy economy is largely reliant on consumer spending.
Other reports compiled by The Conference Board include the Consumer Internet Barometer and the CEO Confidence Index, as well as other major indicators impacting on financial and business markets. The organization is widely considered to be a leading source of sound information regarding corporate performance, corporate governance, corporate security, business ethics, human resources management and global corporate citizenship. Moreover, it produces Leading Economic Indicators for the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Korea, Japan, Mexico and Australia.
The Conference Board connects in excess of 1,600 corporations based in close to 60 countries, with more than 12,000 senior executives attending conferences each year to discuss a variety of management and economic issues. Additionally, The Conference Board sponsors and oversees more than 100 management councils on a worldwide basis, involving senior executives from virtually every business sector. These meetings have been rated by independent authorities as one of America’s top speaking platforms.
The current Chief Executive Officer of The Conference Board, Jon Spector, has enjoyed a successful career which has exposed him to a range of industries, including education, private business and non-profit organizations, giving him a wide scope of knowledge and insight into the various aspects of business and economy. Gail Fosler, prominent American economic forecaster and economist, is currently the President of The Conference Board, with Dutch national Bart van Ark serving as Chief Economist and Vice President. It is the first time in the 92-year history of the organization that the Chief Economist has not been American. Around half of The Board of Trustees, which consists of high-profile CEOs of global corporations, are based outside the United States.
The Conference Board started off in 1915 as a gathering in New York of presidents of twelve major corporations and six prominent industry associations, with the objective of discussing solutions to the growing discord between employers and employees and the associated problems arising from this situation. Appreciating the need for these types of discussions, the National Industrial Conference Board was founded in 1916 and later became The Conference Board which has gone from strength to strength to become a respected authority it today’s global village.
