The only thing more ominous for the world than a Hindenburg Omen sighting [20] is a Bilderberg Group meeting. The concentration of politicians and business leaders has meant the organisation, founded at the Bilderberg Hotel near Arnhem in 1954, has faced accusations of secrecy. Meetings take place behind closed doors, with a ban on journalists. We suspect the agenda (how the US and Europe can promote growth, the way 'big data' is changing 'almost everything', the challenges facing the continent of Africa, and the threat of cyber warfare) has been somewhat re-arranged as market volatility picks up and the status quo begins to quake once again. The annual gathering of the royalty, statesmen, and business leaders, conspiratorially believed to run the world (snubbing their Illuminati peers and Freemason fellows), will take place this week at the Grove Hotel in London, England. The Telegraph [21] provides the full list of attendees below - for those autogrpah seekers - including Britain's George Osborne, US' Henry Kissinger, Peter Sutherland (the chairman of Goldman Sachs), the Fed's Kevin Warsh, Jeff Bezos?, Peter Thiel, Italy's Mario Monti, and Spain's de Guindos.
Bilderberg delegates in full
- Chairman: Henri de Castries, Chairman and CEO, AXA Group
- Paul M. Achleitner, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Deutsche Bank AG
- Josef Ackermann, Chairman of the Board, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd
- Marcus Agius, Former Chairman, Barclays plc
- Helen Alexander, Chairman, UBM plc
- Roger C. Altman, Executive Chairman, Evercore Partners
- Matti Apunen, Director, Finnish Business and Policy Forum EVA
- Susan Athey, Professor of Economics, Stanford Graduate School of Business
- Asli Aydintasbas, Columnist, Milliyet Newspaper
- Ali Babacan, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister for Economic and Financial Affairs
- Ed Balls, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
- Francisco Pinto Balsemão, Chairman and CEO, IMPRESA
- Nicolas Barré, Managing Editor, Les Echos
- José Manuel Barroso, President, European Commission
- Nicolas Baverez, Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
- Olivier de Bavinchove, Commander, Eurocorps
- John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine, University of Oxford
- Franco Bernabè, Chairman and CEO, Telecom Italia S.p.A.
- Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO, Amazon.com
- Carl Bildt, Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs
- Anders Borg, Swedish Minister for Finance
- Jean François van Boxmeer, CEO, Heineken
- Svein Richard Brandtzæg, President and CEO, Norsk Hydro ASA
- Oscar Bronner, Publisher, Der Standard Medienwelt
- Peter Carrington, Former Honorary Chairman, Bilderberg Meetings
- Juan Luis Cebrián, Executive Chairman, Grupo PRISA
- Edmund Clark, President and CEO, TD Bank Group
- Kenneth Clarke, Cabinet Minister
- Bjarne Corydon, Danish Minister of Finance
- Sherard Cowper-Coles, Business Development Director, International, BAE Systems plc
- Enrico Cucchiani, CEO, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA
- Etienne Davignon, Belgian Minister of State; Former Chairman, Bilderberg Meetings
- Ian Davis, Senior Partner Emeritus, McKinsey & Company
- Robbert H. Dijkgraaf, Director and Leon Levy Professor, Institute for Advanced Study
- Haluk Dinçer, President, Retail and Insurance Group, Sabanci Holding A.S.
- Robert Dudley, Group Chief Executive, BP plc
- Nicholas N. Eberstadt, Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy, American Enterprise Institute
- Espen Barth Eide, Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Börje Ekholm, President and CEO, Investor AB
- Thomas Enders, CEO, EADS
- J. Michael Evans, Vice Chairman, Goldman Sachs & Co.
- Ulrik Federspiel, Executive Vice President, Haldor Topsøe A/S
- Martin S.Feldstein, Professor of Economics, Harvard University; President Emeritus, NBER
- François Fillon, Former French Prime Minister
- Mark C. Fishman, President, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research
- Douglas J. Flint, Group Chairman, HSBC Holdings plc
- Paul Gallagher, Senior Counsel
- Timothy F Geithner, Former Secretary of the Treasury
- Michael Gfoeller, US Political Consultant
- Donald E. Graham, Chairman and CEO, The Washington Post Company
- Ulrich Grillo, CEO, Grillo-Werke AG
- Lilli Gruber, Journalist - Anchorwoman, La 7 TV
- Luis de Guindos, Spanish Minister of Economy and Competitiveness
- Stuart Gulliver, Group Chief Executive, HSBC Holdings plc
- Felix Gutzwiller, Member of the Swiss Council of States
- Victor Halberstadt, Professor of Economics, Leiden University; Former Honorary Secretary General of Bilderberg Meetings
- Olli Heinonen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
- Simon Henry, CFO, Royal Dutch Shell plc
- Paul Hermelin, Chairman and CEO, Capgemini Group
- Pablo Isla, Chairman and CEO, Inditex Group
- Kenneth M. Jacobs, Chairman and CEO, Lazard
- James A. Johnson, Chairman, Johnson Capital Partners
- Thomas J. Jordan, Chairman of the Governing Board, Swiss National Bank
- Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Managing Director, Lazard Freres & Co. LLC
- Robert D. Kaplan, Chief Geopolitical Analyst, Stratfor
- Alex Karp, Founder and CEO, Palantir Technologies
- John Kerr, Independent Member, House of Lords
- Henry A. Kissinger, Chairman, Kissinger Associates, Inc.
- Klaus Kleinfeld, Chairman and CEO, Alcoa
- Klaas H.W. Knot, President, De Nederlandsche Bank
- Mustafa V Koç,. Chairman, Koç Holding A.S.
- Roland Koch, CEO, Bilfinger SE
- Henry R. Kravis, Co-Chairman and Co-CEO, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
- Marie-Josée Kravis, Senior Fellow and Vice Chair, Hudson Institute
- André Kudelski, Chairman and CEO, Kudelski Group
- Ulysses Kyriacopoulos, Chairman, S&B Industrial Minerals S.A.
- Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
- J. Kurt Lauk, Chairman of the Economic Council to the CDU, Berlin
- Lawrence Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership, Harvard Law School
- Thomas Leysen, Chairman of the Board of Directors, KBC Group
- Christian Lindner, Party Leader, Free Democratic Party (FDP NRW)
- Stefan Löfven, Party Leader, Social Democratic Party (SAP)
- Peter Löscher, President and CEO, Siemens AG
- Peter Mandelson, Chairman, Global Counsel; Chairman, Lazard International
- Jessica T. Mathews, President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Frank McKenna, Chair, Brookfield Asset Management
- John Micklethwait, Editor-in-Chief, The Economist
- Thierry de Montbrial, President, French Institute for International Relations
- Mario Monti, Former Italian Prime Minister
- Craig J. Mundie, Senior Advisor to the CEO, Microsoft Corporation
- Alberto Nagel, CEO, Mediobanca
- H.R.H. Princess Beatrix of The Netherlands
- Andrew Y.Ng, Co-Founder, Coursera
- Jorma Ollila, Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell, plc
- David Omand, Visiting Professor, King's College London
- George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer
- Emanuele Ottolenghi, Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
- Soli Özel, Senior Lecturer, Kadir Has University; Columnist, Habertürk Newspaper
- Alexis Papahelas, Executive Editor, Kathimerini Newspaper
- Safak Pavey, Turkish MP
- Valérie Pécresse, French MP
- Richard N. Perle, Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
- David H. Petraeus, General, U.S. Army (Retired)
- Paulo Portas, Portugal Minister of State and Foreign Affairs
- J. Robert S Prichard, Chair, Torys LLP
- Viviane Reding, Vice President and Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, European Commission
- Heather M. Reisman, CEO, Indigo Books & Music Inc.
- Hélène Rey, Professor of Economics, London Business School
- Simon Robertson, Partner, Robertson Robey Associates LLP; Deputy Chairman, HSBC Holdings
- Gianfelice Rocca, Chairman,Techint Group
- Jacek Rostowski, Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister
- Robert E. Rubin, Co-Chairman, Council on Foreign Relations; Former Secretary of the Treasury
- Mark Rutte, Dutch Prime Minister
- Andreas Schieder, Austrian State Secretary of Finance
- Eric E. Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google Inc.
- Rudolf Scholten, Member of the Board of Executive Directors, Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG
- António José Seguro, Secretary General, Portuguese Socialist Party
- Jean-Dominique Senard, CEO, Michelin Group
- Kristin Skogen Lund, Director General, Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise
- Anne-Marie Slaughter, Bert G. Kerstetter '66 University Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University
- Peter D. Sutherland, Chairman, Goldman Sachs International
- Martin Taylor, Former Chairman, Syngenta AG
- Tidjane Thiam, Group CEO, Prudential plc
- Peter A. Thiel, President, Thiel Capital
- Craig B. Thompson, President and CEO, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
- Jakob Haldor Topsøe, Partner, AMBROX Capital A/S
- Jutta Urpilainen, Finnish Minister of Finance
- Daniel L. Vasella, Honorary Chairman, Novartis AG
- Peter R. Voser, CEO, Royal Dutch Shell plc
- Brad Wall, Premier of Saskatchewan Province, Canada
- Jacob Wallenberg, Chairman, Investor AB
- Kevin Warsh, Distinguished Visiting Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University
- Galen G.Weston, Executive Chairman, Loblaw Companies Limited
- Baroness Williams of Crosby, Member, House of Lords
- Martin H. Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator, The Financial Times
- James D. Wolfensohn, Chairman and CEO, Wolfensohn and Company
- David Wright, Vice Chairman, Barclays plc
- Robert B. Zoellick, Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics
via the Telegraph [21] [21]