John C. Whitehead

John C. Whitehead, who chairs the New America Foundation's Leadership Council, is Chairman of The Goldman Sachs Foundation.  Mr. Whitehead began his professional career in 1947 at Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he worked for 38 years.  He rose quickly within the company and was named Partner in 1956 and Co-Chairman and Senior Partner in 1976.  He has served on the boards of numerous companies and as a Director of the New York Stock Exchange and Chairman of the Securities Industry Association.

In April 1985, Mr. Whitehead was asked to become Deputy Secretary of State, second-in-command to Secretary George Shultz, and he served until January 1989.  During this period, he was Acting Secretary of State when Mr. Shultz was away from Washington and took a special interest in relations with Eastern Europe, the United Nations, and various administrative reforms in the State Department.  Mr. Whitehead was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Reagan.

Since returning to New York in 1989, he has been active in a number of educational, civic, and charitable organizations.  He is a former Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the United Nations Association, the International Rescue Committee, the Greater New York Councils of the Boy Scouts, International House, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Harvard Board of Overseers, Haverford College, and the Asia Society.  He is also now a Director of the Nature Conservancy, Lincoln Center Theater, the East-West Institute, and the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowships, and a former Director of Rockefeller University, the J. Paul Getty Trust, Outward Bound, and the National Humanities Center.  In Washington, Mr. Whitehead is Chairman Emeritus of the Brookings Institution and the Trustees Council of the National Gallery of Art.

In late 2001, he was appointed to chair the Board of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.