Membership in the Council on Foreign Relations comes in two types: Individual and Corporate. Individual memberships are further subdivided into two types: Life Membership and Term Membership, the latter of which is for a single period of five years and is available to those between the ages of 30 and 36 at the time of their application. Only U.S. citizens (native born or naturalized) and permanent residents who have applied for U.S. citizenship are eligible. A candidate for life membership must be nominated in writing by one Council member and seconded by a minimum of three others (strongly encouraged to be other CFR members).[1]
Corporate membership (250 in total) is divided into three levels: "Founders" (US$100,000); "President's Circle" (US$60,000); and "Affiliates" (US$30,000). All corporate executive members have opportunities to hear distinguished speakers, such as overseas presidents and prime ministers, chairs and CEOs of multinational corporations, and U.S. officials and Congressmen. President's Circle and Founders are also entitled to other benefits, including attendance at small, private dinners or receptions with senior American officials and world leaders.[2]
The Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations is composed in total of thirty-five officers. It also has an International Advisory Board consisting of thirty-five distinguished individuals from across the world.[3][4][5]
Office | Name |
Chairman of the board | Kelvin Gates |
deputy Chairman | Blair Effron |
Vice chairman | Jami Miscik |
President | Michael Froman |
Board of Directors | |
Thad W. Allen | chair of the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Advisory Board of NASA |
Nicholas F. Beim | partner at Venrock, Dataminr and Rebellion Defense board[6] |
Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss | founder and CEO of RockCreek, partner at Carlyle Group, treasurer and chief investment officer of the World Bank |
Sylvia Mathews Burwell | president of American University, former HHS Secretary |
Ash Carter | director of Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center, former Defense Secretary |
Kenneth I. Chenault | chairman and managing director of General Catalyst |
N. Anthony "Tony" Coles | executive chairman and CEO of Cerevel Therapeutics, executive chair of Yumanity Therapeutics[7] |
Cesar Conde | chairman of NBCUniversal News Group |
Nathaniel C. Fick | general manager of Elastic Security |
Laurence "Larry" Fink | chairman and CEO of BlackRock[8] |
Stephen C. Freidheim | CIO, founder, and managing partner of Cyrus Capital Partners[9] |
Tim Geithner | president and director of Warburg Pincus, former president of N.Y. Fed |
James P. Gorman | chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley |
Richard Haass | CFR president |
Stephen Hadley | principal of Rice, Hadley, Gates and Manuel[10] |
Margaret Ann "Peggy" Hamburg | former foreign secretary of the National Academy of Medicine |
Jeh Johnson | former DHS Secretary |
James Manyika | SVP Google, McKinsey Global Institute chairman and director emeritus |
William H. McRaven | professor of national security at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at UT Austin, retired admiral formerly in charge of the U.S. Special Operations Command |
Janet Napolitano | former DHS Secretary |
Meghan O'Sullivan | Trilateral Commission North American chair, Harvard Kennedy School professor, former deputy national security adviser[11] |
Deven J. Parekh | managing director of Insight Partners[12] |
Charles Phillips | chairman of Infor |
Richard Plepler | founder and CEO of Eden Productions, former chairman and CEO of Home Box Office, Inc. |
Ruth Porat | senior vice president and CFO of Alphabet and Google |
Laurene Powell Jobs | founder and president of Emerson Collective[13][14][15] |
L. Rafael Reif | president of MIT |
Frances Townsend | CBS national security analyst, former Homeland Security Advisor |
Tracey T. Travis | Estée Lauder Companies executive v.p. and CFO[16] |
Margaret G. Warner | PBS news correspondent |
Daniel Yergin | vice chairman of IHS Markit |
Fareed Zakaria | editor-at-large, Time |
Source: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921 to 1996: Historical Roster of Directors and Officers[145]