David Rockefeller

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American banker and philanthropist David Rockefeller, 1985.

© Shepard Sherbell—Corbis Historical/Getty Images

David Rockefellerwas an American banker and philanthropist, a member of the famed Rockefeller family. He was the youngest of the five sons of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

David Rockefeller received a B.S. degree from Harvard University (1936), did graduate study in economics at Harvard and at the London School of Economics, and then earned a Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago (1940). After service in the U.S. Army during World War II (1942–45), he joined in 1946 the staff of the Chase National Bank of New York, of which his maternal uncle, Winthrop W. Aldrich, was chairman of the board. Rockefeller rose steadily in the hierarchy to become senior vice president in 1952 and was instrumental in the merger (1955) of Chase National and the Bank of the Manhattan Company that resulted in the Chase Manhattan Bank. His rise in the merged institution was capped in 1969 when he became chairman of the board (1969–81) and chief executive officer (1969–80).

Rockefeller’s speciality became international banking, and he was a familiar figure to ministers and heads of state of various countries around the world, as well as to heads of multinational corporations. In 1973 he founded the Trilateral Commission, a private international organization designed to confront the challenges posed by globalization and to encourage greater cooperation between the United States and its principal allies (Canada, Japan, and the countries of western Europe). Rockefeller attended and contributed financially to the Bilderberg Conference, an annual three-day meeting attended by approximately 100 of Europe’s and North America’s most influential bankers, economists, politicians, and government officials.